Thursday 10 April 2008

All about RSD/CRPS...

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is the term used to describe severe pain and swelling in one part of the body. CRPS usually affects the hands, feet, elbows or knees, but can affect any part of the body.
The pain may start after an injury, where the nerves have been damaged, or there may be no known cause for it to start. The pain usually gets gradually worse and may spread to other parts of the body.
There are two types of CRPS. Type 1 may not have any known cause. It used to be called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), Sudecks Atrophy or Algodystrophy. Type 2 always follows an injury and used to be called causalgia.
CRPS is quite rare (an estimated 11,500 people in the UK have it) and half of all people that develop it recover within a few months.

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