My arm would get pink and warm up but nothing would take all of the pain away. Let me explain that RSD usually comes from a soft tissue injury, a casted limb or a partial nerve injury. RSD's major characteristic is Pain, burning, crushing, tearing, exhausting, pain. It usually is accompanied by some swelling, temperature changes in the affected limb and skin changes. There are so many different symptoms of this disease and everyone is affected just a little bit differently so RSDers can differ tremendously.
Bier blocks are when a tourniquet is applied to squeeze all of the blood out of the limb.
Then the veins or arteries are filled with medication. The tourniquet is keep on for as long as the patient can stand it so the medication has a to work before it flows into the rest of the body. I had bier blocks with an experimental medication, ganethadine. They began talking about removing my first rib so that compression would be lessened. After the surgery, I tried to cure the RSD through physical therapy.