ABSTRACT Explaining the etiology of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) from the psychogenic model is exceedingly unsophisticated, because neurocognitive deficits, neuroanatomical abnormalities, and distortions in cognitive mapping are features of CRPS pathology. More importantly, many people who have developed CRPS have no history of mental illness. The psychogenic model offers comfort to ph...

A complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)--multiple system dysfunction, severe and often chronic pain, and disability--can be triggered by a minor injury, a fact that has fascinated scientists and perplexed clinicians for decades. However, substantial advances across several medical disciplines have recently improved our understanding of CRPS. Compelling evidence implicates biological pathways th...

Interventional therapies, including nerve blocks, drug infusions, and implantable pain treatment devices have all been advocated for the treatment of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). This section will present information about the role of each block or technique individually and present an algorithm for a “best practices” utilization of these procedures to treat CRPS, citing the best avai...

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a poorly understood, debilitating disorder characterized by severe chronic pain in an affected limb or region of the body. This case presentation is the first to describe the effectiveness and prolonged duration of the effect of liposome bupivacaine in stellate ganglion block for CRPS.

Nerve injury is a known precipitant of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). However, is nerve injury a primary cause of CRPS dystonia? In 2009, Oaklander and her colleagues [1] reviewed peripheral aspects of CRPS, asking whether diverse symptoms of this neuropathic pain disorder are linked to small-fiber neuropathies. These authors also described a possible role for large-fiber neuropathies i...

There is a relatively long history of the use of the α -adrenergic antagonist, phenoxybenzamine, for the treatment of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). One form of this syndrome, CRPS I, was originally termed reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) because of an apparent dysregulation of the sympathetic nervous system in the region of an extremity that had been subjected to an injury or surgica...

Several predisposing conditions have been associated with complex regional pain syndrome I (CRPS I). The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between a history of allergy/hypersensitivity reactions and CRPS I in orthopedic patients. Orthopedic patients with CRPS I (n=115) who experienced pain relief after a successful sympathetic nerve blockade were identified for study inclu...

Bilateral complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) appears to be unusual [1–5]. We report details of bilateral CRPS diagnosed by International Association for Study of Pain (IASP) criteria in five patients who presented with florid symptoms (more prominent in one extremity) that persisted despite physical therapy (PT) and medications (Figure 1). They were effectively treated with a novel multimoda...