Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) or Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD)? The physicians I’ve dealt with so far don’t even seem to agree on its name! No surprise that it’s so difficult to find a good, brief, description of CRPS, so I’ve cobbled together my own.
My personal definition of CRPS comes from reading as many medical journal articles as I could find in a relatively short time, as well as from conversations with many different physicians and other healthcare professionals over the past month and a half. Since my diagnosis with this disease.
This is my definition, although it’s likely to change as I learn more about this nasty beast of a disease:
CRPS is often viewed as a rare neuro-inflammatory and highly painful chronic disease that affects – and can travel (or spread) along – the sympathetic nerves.
It can also cause changes to bones, joints, nails, and skin, among other issues. The severe, often unremitting, and very difficult to treat neuropathic pain – the same type of neuropathic pain suffered by many terminal cancer patients – has been linked to higher incidence of both depression and suicide.
It’s also the only condition or disease I’ve found to-date in my literature reviews (i.e. searches of medical journals, on PubMed, and other sources of medical information) in which amputation of a limb is considered for pain management: “Amputation in CRPS may be indicated due to pain”.(1)
Reference:
(1) “Amputation for Long-Standing, Therapy-Resistant Type-I Complex Regional Pain Syndrome”: Krans-Schreuder, Hilde K., Bodde, Marlies I., Schrier, Ernst, Dijkstra, Pieter U., van den Dungen, Jan A., den Dunnen, Wilfred F., and Geertzen, Jan H.;2012; JBJS
http://journals.lww.com/jbjsjournal/Abstract/2012/12190/Amputation_for_Long_Standing,_Therapy_Resistant.8.aspx