The Puzzle of CRPS: Understanding Its Complex Symptoms

Pain Medicine Consultants Blog The Puzzle of CRPS: Understanding Its Complex Symptoms
The Puzzle of CRPS: Understanding Its Complex Symptoms

The name itself — complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) — is a good indicator that we’re up against something that isn’t exactly simple. Consider that the word “syndrome” means there’s a wide range of possible symptoms, and things get even more complicated.

But we want to go in a more productive direction with CRPS, which affects about 200,000 Americans each year.

As board-certified pain management specialists, our team at Pain Medicine Consultants knows its way around CRPS, and the one key point we've learned is that early intervention can make all the difference. 

With that in mind, we get into signs of CRPS, as well as how we can help you find relief.

Unraveling CRPS

At its core, CRPS is a neurological issue. It stems from a malfunction in your nervous system that leads to no small amount of discomfort, typically in one of your limbs to start. 

There are two types of CRPS — one that develops on the heels of an injury and one that develops outside an injury. In either case, the trajectory of the disease is often the same and includes three stages, which we’ll get into in a moment.

We don’t yet fully understand what causes CRPS, but in many cases, it follows an injury, and as your nervous system resets itself, there’s a short circuit. This is a simplistic explanation of a complex problem, but it’s the best way to describe what might be happening.

The three stages of CRPS

Now we want to review the stages of CRPS and the symptoms that develop during each. We spell this out, because the earlier we can catch the problem, the better we can prevent your CRPS from advancing to the next stage.

Stage 1 — acute

During the first three months of CRPS, people typically develop pain, which they describe as burning, and an increased sensitivity to touch or pressure. You might also experience swelling and joint stiffness in the affected limb.

Stage 2 — dystrophic

This stage lasts about 3-12 months and can include the following symptoms:

You might also experience excessive sweating and faster hair growth

Stage 3 — atrophic

After a year, you might experience ongoing stiffness and loss of range of motion. While your pain may decrease, symptoms may travel to other areas of your body.

Identifying and treating CRPS

The reason we emphasize early detection is because we can intervene during the first stages to reverse the course of CRPS. There’s no test for CRPS, but we can thoroughly evaluate your symptoms to determine whether it’s behind your symptoms.

If we diagnose CRPS, our frontline treatments include corticosteroid injections to reduce the pain and inflammation. We also might prescribe other pain management medications to help improve your comfort level.

Additionally, movement is key to keeping your affected limb flexible and to make sure it has access to resources through good circulation.

For more advanced CRPS, we can try neuromodulation as well as pain pumps to help you manage the pain signaling from overactive nerves.

Again, the earlier we can address CRPS, the better, so if you recognize any of the symptoms we describe above, come see us right away. To set that in motion, you can contact us at one of our offices in Pleasant Hill, Corte Madera, or Pleasanton, California, to schedule an appointment.

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