thesis
Breaking the stigma : the association between psychological factors and the complex regional pain syndrome
- Publication date
- 19 November 2008
- Publisher
- In 1900, Sudeck first described a post-traumatic pain syndrome with
edema and trophic changes. This syndrome, known as Sudeck atrophy,
was later called sympathetic reflex dystrophy and in 1994 renamed Complex
Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). CRPS usually develops after a minor
trauma such as an injury or fracture or after surgery, but spontaneous
development of CRPS type 1 (CRPS1) has also been described. There are
two types of CRPS described; CRPS1 arises without an obvious, detectable
nerve lesion, and type 2 (CRPS2) manifests with an obvious, detectable
lesion.
The observation that only certain patients develop CRPS1 after a common
trauma has led to the idea that some patients are susceptible to developing
CRPS1. There are indications for a genetic susceptibility for
CRPS129-33, and there is growing evidence for immunological attainment
of this syndrome, but a definitive conclusion cannot yet be made.
The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) defines
CRPS1 as a variety of painful conditions following injury that appears
regionally and has a distal predominance of abnormal findings.