Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy is a painful and confusing condition that occurs after trivial injury often involving soft tissue around joints. The pain is extremely severe and far outweighs that normally produced by tissue damage. It is thought to be due to chemical changes in the nervous system, but the exact mechanism is not known.
Treatment is aimed at maintaining function.
The risk is that the pain which usually involves a limb means that the child will not use the limb and this can lead to wasting and permanent loss of function. Ordinary painkillers are often unhelpful and drugs which are often not thought of as painkillers are used to reduce the overactivity in the nervous system. Inheritance patterns As far as we can ascertain there is no inherited predisposition to this syndrome, although it may be associated with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome which is an inherited condition. The Group is a parent support group founded in 1996 by the parents of affected children. It also offers support to adults nationwide.