Although most medical experts believe RSD is characterized by an overactive sympathetic nervous system response, there is much debate about the physiology of the disease. The name reflex sympathetic dystrophy was given to the disease in the 1940’s but has undergone recent scrutiny.
Many in the medical field believe that the name “reflex sympathetic dystrophy” is somewhat misleading considering only a portion of the patients respond to sympathetic blocks, indicating that not all of the pain in this syndrome is related to the sympathetic nervous system.
In response to this frequent inconsistency, the International Association for the Study of Pain has adopted the term Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) to describe the debilitating pain syndrome that was commonly known as RSD.
RSD / CRPS typically occurs following trauma or surgery to an extremity. Often the injury is relatively minor and the pain is greatly disproportionate to the injury. Although the severe pain may immediately follow the injury, it often does not and instead follows the injury days or even months. The pain is often characterized as an intense burning type pain.
RSD/CRPS produces true chronic pain in patients due to its effect on their Central Nervous System with new research indicating ...
The personal injury attorneys at Belt Law Firm have successfully represented RSD/CRPS clients in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee. These cases involved injuries from automobile accidents (shoulder injury, ankle fracture), product malfunctions (hand crush, wrist fracture), slip and falls (knee contusion, wrist fracture), poorly performed blood draws (antecubital pain), and crush injuries (ankle, Achilles tendon).
Among the settlements we have achieved in RSD/CRPS cases are: $2,500,000 for a (AL) slip and fall case involving a woman who developed RSD after suffering a broken wrist, $1,300,000 for a (FL) case where a woman developed RSD after an improperly performed blood draw, and $800,000 for a (TN) woman who developed RSD after suffering a bruised knee due to a slip and fall in a grocery store. ...Read More
