According to the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a broad term describing excess and prolonged pain and inflammation that follows an injury to an arm or leg. CRPS has acute (recent, short-term) and chronic (lasting greater than six months) forms. CRPS used to be known as reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) and causalgia. People with CRPS have changing combinations of spontaneous pain or excess pain that is much greater than normal following something as mild as a touch. Other symptoms include changes in skin color, temperature, and/or swelling on the arm or leg below the site of injury. Although CRPS improves over time, eventually going away in most people, the rare severe or prolonged cases are profoundly disabling.
In more severe cases as symptoms progress, pain may become more severe and the muscles may contract and atrophy. In the final stage of the syndrome, the entire limb may become engulfed by severe pain. Piedmont Interventional Pain Care offers effective options to help with the discomfort of the condition.
Read more about this condition on the National Institute of Health website.
View the original post on the Piedmont Interventional Pain Care website.
