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

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 pain syndrome, as proposed by the International Association for the Study of Pain in 1993, provides categorization of the condition based upon clinical features, location, and specifics of the injury without implying mechanisms, etiology, or sympathetic maintenance
Author - L. Andrew Koman, M.D. Wake Forest University School of Medicine Department of Orthopaedic Surgery Winston-Salem, NC 27157

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;
- 1995: IASP Consensus Conference: “Complex regional pain syndrome” replaced RSD
- CRPS Type 1: noxious event;
Type 2: nerve injury (causalgia)
- pain/hyperalgesia not limited to single nerve distribution, disproportionate to inciting event
- described as abnormal pain, swelling, vasomotor instability, contracture, and osteoporosis following injury or noxious stimulus.
- CRPS: other names - reflex sympathetic dystrophy, Sudeck’s atrophy, causalgia (minor and major), algodystrophy, shoulder-hand syndrome, post-traumatic pain syndrome, Painful post-traumatic osteoporosis, Transient migratory osteoporosis