NINDS Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Information Page

What is Complex Regional Pain Syndrome?

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a chronic pain condition.  The key symptom of CRPS is continuous, intense pain out of proportion to the severity of the injury, which gets worse rather than better over time. CRPS most often affects one of the arms, legs, hands, or feet.  Often the pain spreads to include the entire arm or leg.  Typical features include dramatic changes in the color and temperature of the skin over the affected limb or body part, accompanied by intense burning pain, skin sensitivity, sweating, and swelling.  Doctors aren’t sure what causes CRPS.  In some cases the sympathetic nervous system plays an important role in sustaining the pain.  Another theory is that CRPS is caused by a triggering of the immune response, which leads to the characteristic inflammatory symptoms of redness, warmth, and swelling in the affected area.

Is there any treatment?

What is the prognosis?

What research is being done?

• Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome Fact Sheet
  Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (also called Causalgia and Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome) information page compiled by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
• NINDS Chronic Pain Information Page
  Chronic pain information page compiled by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
• Pain: Hope Through Research
  Chronic pain information page compiled by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
• Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy/ Complex Regional Pain Syndromes (CRPS): State-of-the-Science
  A workshop on Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy/ Complex Regional Pain Syndromes (CRPS): State-of-the-Science, December 15, 2001.