Atlas Rehabilitation and Pain Medicine,
located on Park Avenue South in Manhattan @ 31st Street in New York
and on Millburn Avenue in Millburn, New Jersey
is a pain treatment and pain management centre at the forefront of
advanced pain therapies for reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD).
Reflex sympathetic
dystrophy (RSD), also known as complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS),
is a chronic, painful, and progressive neurological condition that
affects skin, muscles, joints, and bones. The reflex sympathetic
dystrophy syndrome usually develops in an injured limb, such as a
broken leg, broken arm, or following surgery. However, many cases of
Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy involve only a minor injury, such as a
sprain. And in some cases, no precipitating event can be identified
to trigger RSD.
Reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome, or RSDS for short, involves a
disturbance in the sympathetic nervous system which is the network
of nerves located alongside the spinal cord and controls certain
bodily functions, such as opening and closing blood vessels or sweat
glands. It usually affects the hands and feet.
There are two types of Reflex Sympathetic
Dystrophy (RSD) and Complex Regional Pain Syndroms (CRPS) that have
been defined and unfortunately both types share the same signs and
symptoms.
Type 1 - without nerve injury
Type 2 (formerly called causalgia) - with nerve injury
An early diagnosis of your reflex sympathetic dystrophy
syndrome and treatment of your RSD or CRPS an help reduce or prevent
permanent damage. Reflex sympathetic dystrophy rreatments may
include:
Biofeedback
Medications: alpha-blocking drugs, calcium channel blockers, local
anesthetic blockers
Bien block
Physical therapy
Surgery
TENS unit (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation)
The outlook for recovery from reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome
is best when the condition is diagnosed early. For immediate pain
relief, your doctor may inject the painful area with a local
anesthetic, such as lidocaine. Other drugs used to treat reflex
sympathetic dystrophy include corticosteroids; vasodilators, which
dilate the blood vessels; and alpha- or beta-adrenergic-blocking
compounds, which help reduce muscle spasms.
The spine specialists of
Atlas Rehabilitation and Pain Medicine of Manhattan, New York will also recommend
immobilizing and elevating the painful area. In some cases, physical
therapy may help to keep the joints stiffening and the muscles from
losing their tone. A procedure called transcutaneous electrical
stimulation (TENS), used to treat chronic pain, may also offer some
relief. With TENS, brief pulses of electricity are applied to nerve
endings under the skin. In very severe cases, pain is relieved by
actually cutting the nerves that are causing the pain. This
procedure, called surgical sympathectomy, completely relieves the
pain.
If you need your Reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndromecondition
diagnosed, or are seeking a pain management specialists for
your Reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome, the pain management
doctors of Atlas Rehabilitation and Pain Medicine of Manhattan, New York and Millburn, New Jersey are the
world specialists for this condition and would be happy to see you
for a consultation and help you learn about the treatment options
available to you.
