Complex Regional Pain Syndromes (Subscribe)

Review of CRPS (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy) Journal of Postgraduate Medicine 50(4)2004

Reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome (RSDS) has been recognized since the Civil War when it was called causalgia, a name chosen to describe intense, burning extremity pain after an injury. Since then, RSDS has had a number of name changes. Bonica coined the term reflex sympathetic dystrophy in 1953. The American...

Patient Information from Dr David Nelson but a very good review for those not that conversant with this problem.

A myriad of terms has been used to describe post-noxious or traumatic pain accompanied by autonomic dysfunction and impaired extremity capacity. The most commonly used descriptors of this condition are reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) in the United States and algodystrophy in Europe. However, the use of the term complex regional...

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) may develop as a disproportionate consequence of a trauma affecting the limbs without nerve injury (CRPS I, or reflex sympathetic dystrophy [RSD]) or with obvious nerve lesions (CRPS II, or causalgia).
Synonyms and related keywords: complex regional pain syndrome, CRPS, complex regional pain syndrome I,...

Wheeless' Textbook of Orthopaedics
“RSD” is an imprecisely used term; has been used to describe changes in soft tissue and bone;
- RSD may not involve the sympathetic nervous system and may not be the consequence of a reflex;
...

RSD is a descriptive term meaning a complex disorder or a group of disorders that may develop as a consequence of trauma affecting the limbs, with or without an obvious nerve lesion. RSD also may develop after visceral diseases or CNS lesions or, rarely, without an obvious antecedent event. It...

Author: Satishchandra Kale, MD, FRCS 2005
Reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) is a condition that is often described under various synonyms that point to its incompletely understood etiology. In 1864, Weir Mitchell coined the term causalgia to designate severe pain following nerve injury. In 1900, Sudeck described regional demineralization accompanying posttraumatic pain....

Reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) is an incompletely understood response of the body to an external stimulus, resulting in pain that usually is nonanatomic and disproportionate to the inciting event or expected healing response. As early as the 1930s and 1940s, a short circuit in the reflex arc between somatic afferent...

Reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) is a clinical syndrome of variable course and unknown cause characterized by pain, swelling, and vasomotor dysfunction of an extremity. This condition is often the result of trauma or surgery. In 1864, Mitchell referred to this malady as causalgia, a Greek word meaning burning pain. Newer...