The pathogenesis of reflex sympathetic dystrophy--variously known as Sudeck's atrophy, causalgia, algodystrophy, and peripheral trophoneurosis--is not yet understood, and diagnosing and treating patients is difficult. We have prospectively studied 829 patients, paying particular attention to early signs and symptoms. In its early phase, reflex sympathetic dystrophy is characterised by regional ...

We have reviewed 28 patients with reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) who had 34 amputations in 31 limbs. The amputations had been performed for untenable pain (5), recurrent infection (14) or to improve residual function (15). Only two patients were relieved of pain by amputation, and this could not be predicted. Ten of 14 patients were cured of infection and 9 of 15 patients had improvement of...

The question of definition HOW DID WE REACH THE PRESENT SITUATION? In 1864 Silas Weir Mitchell, a founding father of American neurology, together with Morehouse and Keen, described the clinical condition of causalgia in soldiers injured in the American civil war. This term, which means burning pain, was used to describe a particular painful condition that sometimes followed major nerve injury. ...