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    • What Is CRPS?
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FIGHT THE FLAME
  • Home
  • What Is CRPS?
  • About Us
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CRPS FACTS:

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)

What is CRPS? CRPS is a chronic, debilitating pain disorder that usually affects a limb after an injury.  A CRPS patient will experience constant, unrelenting, pain along with a myriad of other symptoms. Many times the disease will spread to other parts of the body as well. 

Causes of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

CRPS is a result of overactive/misfiring sympathetic nerve fibers. Many cases of CRPS are due to some sort of trauma: surgery; broken/sprained bones or ligaments; injections; infections or nerve damage.

CRPS does not discriminate; men/women, young or old. There is no known explanation of why this disorder occurs in some people and not others.

Not all CRPS patients experience the exact same symptoms. 

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Most Common Symptoms:

  • Pain: CRPS patients have reported that the pain feels burning/freezing, shooting/stabbing, and aching/throbbing. Some have said that it feels as if their blood has been replaced with gasoline and then lit on fire
  • Swelling
  • Inflammation
  • Severe sensitivity to normal touch and temperatures. Many people with CRPS will describe that even the slightest wind or the silkiest sheets touching their affected area feel like torture. This is referred to as allodynia.
  • Skin color and temperature changes – an affected body part may feel warmer or colder than it’s counter-part. The skin may look mottled; irregular and purplish.
  • Muscle spasms
  • Myoclonic jerks (quick, involuntary movements)
  • Trouble concentrating/memory loss
  • Insomnia
  • Stiffness, limited, or immobility of affected area

Many CRPS Patients Also Experience: 

  • Chronically fatigued
  • Sweating
  • Depression/anxiety
  • Skin lesions
  • Immune system problems
  • Sensitivity to sound, vibrations, aromas
  • Visual disturbances

Signs & Symptoms of CRPS

The McGill Pain Index

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Complex Regional Pain Syndrome is the most painful condition known to mankind.

Melzack and Torgerson first developed The McGill Pain Index at the McGill Institute in 1971 as a way of gauging the quality of pain.   This index is used by doctors and hospitals worldwide and is a valuable tool when evaluating chronic pain. It is considered to be a consistent, reliable and effective instrument.

The McGill Pain Index can show others how drastic CRPS pain is compared to more familiar medical problems and disease. 

How is CRPS Diagnosed? 

The CRPS diagnosis can be very challenging. A diagnosis is based on a few variables; a person’s medical history, physical symptoms,and medical diagnostics.


Symptoms:

Using Budapest Criteria, as a diagnosis of CRPS, a patient must have at least one symptom in three of the following four categories:

  1. Sensory: an abnormal increase in sensitivity (hyperesthesia) and/or allodynia
  2. Vasomotor: skin color changes or temperature and/or skin color changes between the limbs
  3. Sudomotor: swelling (edema) and/or sweating differences between the limbs;
  4. Motor: decreased range of motion and/or motor dysfunction, tremors/ muscular spasms (dystonia) and/or trophic changes (changes to hair/nails and/or skin).

Signs

At the examination, at least one sign must be present in two or more of the following categories:

  1. Sensory: hyperalgesia (to pinprick) and/or allodynia, deep somatic (physical) pressure
  2. Vasomotor: temperature differences between the limb and/or skin color changes and/or skin color changes between the limb;
  3. Sudomotor: edema and/or sweating changes and/or sweating differences between the limbs;
  4. Motor/trophic: decreased range of motion and/or motor dysfunction (i.e. weakness, tremor or muscle spasm) and/or trophic changes

Budapest Criteria

Testing and CRPS

Thermography

One of the most useful tests in diagnosing CRPS is thermography.  Thermography is a visual mapping of the skin. A person’s skin temperature is controlled by their sympathetic nervous system. Thermography can show temperature differences down to 1/10th of one degree centigrade.  If there is a difference one degree centigrade from one limb to the other, that would mean the sympathetic nervous system was malfunctioning – hence a diagnosis of CRPS.

• Testing may also be used to help rule out other conditions, such as arthritis, Lyme disease, arthritis, etc. 

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