Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome I): A Descriptive Case Study

Complex regional pain syndrome type I (CPRS I, formerly known as reflex sympathetic dystrophy) is a painful neuropathic disorder that develops after trauma affecting the limbs without overt nerve injury. The clinical features are spontaneous pain, hyperalgesia, impairment of motor function, swelling and autonomic abnormalities. Besides pain, autonomic (sympathetic) disturbances are characteristic clinical symptoms. These include regional abnormalities of cutaneous, vascular and sudomotor function. At present CPRS I is a pure clinical diagnosis and no objective test procedure exists to diagnose this entity with high sensitivity and specificity. The primary objective of physiotherapeutic modalities is goal-oriented function restoration, henceforth it’s been proven that this syndrome has poor prognosis. Keywords: Hyperalgesia, Autonomic abnormalities, Sympathetic disturbances, Sudomotor abnormalities, CPRS I.