A number of activities at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) have been initiated to improve pain management. Out of these activities, a gap in service was identified with respect to complex and chronic pain. Data on the incidence of children suffering with complex and chronic pain in Eastern Ontario is not available. A Position Statement by the American Pain Society conservativel...

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a relatively rare, chronic, and debilitating condition that significantly impacts the patient's quality of life. There is an overall paucity of literature addressing the management of CRPS in immunocompromised patients. We define features of CRPS, outline its treatment options, and describe a course of CRPS management for a 35-year-old patient who had he...

BACKGROUND Complex regional pain syndromes can be relieved by sympathetic blockage. The mechanisms of sympathetically maintained pain (SMP) are unclear. We aimed to establish the effect of physiological sympathetic cutaneous vasoconstrictor activity on pain and hyperalgesia in patients with complex regional pain syndromes. METHODS High and low cutaneous vasoconstrictor activity was produced b...

BACKGROUND The purpose of the present paper was to assess efficiency of treatment and long-term functional outcome of complex regional pain syndromes (CRPS) in children who were treated in the chronic pain clinic at a major tertiary hospital in Israel. METHODS The files of 14 children with CRPS were analyzed retrospectively. Demographic data, initiating event, referring source, time needed fo...

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), formerly known as Sudeck's dystrophy and causalgia, is a disabling and distressing pain syndrome. We here provide a review based on the current literature concerning the epidemiology, etiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis, and therapy of CRPS. CRPS may develop following fractures, limb trauma or lesions of the peripheral or CNS. The clinical picture compris...

BACKGROUND The partial form of the complex regional pain syndrome of the hand type 1 (CRPS 1), involving only 1 to 3 fingers, is a rare condition first described in 1972. The aim of the study is to define more precisely the diagnosis workup and the prognosis of this clinical entity. METHODS Retrospective study of CRPS1 partial form observed during five years in a rehabilitation ward. Applicat...

OBJECTIVE Spatially-defined disruption of autonomic and sensory function has been identified in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). This study aimed to determine whether motor performance is also disrupted in a spatially-defined manner in people with CRPS. METHODS Thirteen people with CRPS type 1 of the upper limb participated in two motor experiments. In Experiment 1 participants performe...

iii Publications x Author contributions xi Acknowledgements xii List of tables xvi List of figures xix 1.0 Introduction to complex regional pain syndrome 1.1 The problem of complex regional pain syndrome 1 1.2 Diagnosis and clinical features 2 1.2.1 Pain and sensory disturbances 5 1.2.2 Vasomotor disturbances 6 1.2.3 Sudomotor disturbances/edema 6 1.2.4 Motor/trophic disturbances 7 1.3 Spread o...