CRPS type I (reflex sympathetic dystrophy)

• Develops after an initiating noxious event
• Spontaneous pain or allodynia/hyperalgesia
• Edema, vascular abnormalities
• Abnormal sudomotor activity
• Non-nerve origin

CRPS type II (causalgia) 

• Develops after nerve injury
• Not limited to territory of injured nerve
• Edema; skin blood flow abnormality
• Abnormal sudomotor activity

Clinical Features of CRPS (in addition to the differences listed above)

• Symptoms more marked distally in an extremity
• Symptoms progress in intensity and spread proximally
• Symptoms vary with time
• Disproportion of symptoms in relation to the causing event
• A specific diagnosis, such as diabetes or fibromyalgia, has been excluded

Buy the Book that holds this excerpt: Therapeutic Exercise: Foundations and Techniques (Therapeutic Exercise: Foundations & Techniques)

Related Articles