What is so scary about complex regional pain syndrome?
Complex regional pain syndrome is a painful burning sensation that occurs typically in a hand or foot after an injury. European scientists have found evidence with brain mapping that complex regional pain syndrome can spread from the affected hand or foot to the unaffected hand or foot. How the disease spreads is unknown and more research is needed. Typically, early diagnosis and treatment will lead to the best outcome.
The Research
Neurology. 2011 Sep 13;77(11):1096-101. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e31822e1436. Epub 2011 Aug 31.
Bilateral somatosensory cortex disinhibition in complex regional pain syndrome type I.
Lenz M1, Höffken O, Stude P, Lissek S, Schwenkreis P, Reinersmann A, Frettlöh J, Richter H, Tegenthoff M, Maier C.
1
Department of Neurology, Berufsgenossenschaftliches Universitätsklinikum Bergmannsheil GmbH, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bürkle-de-la-Camp-Platz 1, 44789 Bochum, Germany. melanie.lenz@rub.de
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
In a previous study, we found bilateral disinhibition in the motor cortex of patients with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). This finding suggests a complex dysfunction of central motor-sensory circuits. The aim of our present study was to assess possible bilateral excitability changes in the somatosensory system of patients with CRPS.
METHODS:
We measured paired-pulse suppression of somatosensory evoked potentials in 21 patients with unilateral CRPS I involving the hand. Eleven patients with upper limb pain of non-neuropathic origin and 21 healthy subjects served as controls. Innocuous paired-pulse stimulation of the median nerve was either performed at the affected and the unaffected hand, or at the dominant hand of healthy controls, respectively.
RESULTS:
We found a significant reduction of paired-pulse suppression in both sides of patients with CRPS, compared with control patients and healthy control subjects.
CONCLUSION:
These findings resemble our findings in the motor system and strongly support the hypothesis of a bilateral complex impairment of central motor-sensory circuits in CRPS I.
Comment in
- Bilateral somatosensory cortex disinhibition in complex regional pain syndrome type I. [Neurology. 2012]
