Park West Pain Management, located on 1 West 85th Street in Manhattan, New York and on Richmond Road in Staten Island, New York is a pain treatment and pain management center at the forefront of advanced pain therapies for Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)/reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD).

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), formerly known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy(RSD), is a chronic, painful, and progressive multi-system condition that affects skin, muscles, joints, nerves, and bones. The Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome usually develops in an injured limb, such as a broken leg, broken arm, or following surgery. However, many cases of CRPS involve only a minor injury, such as a sprain. And in some cases, no precipitating event can be identified to trigger RSD.

CPRS, may involve 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 CRPS/RSD 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 treatments may include:

Physical therapy
Lumbar Sympathetic Block
Stellate Ganglion Block
Medications: alpha-blocking drugs, calcium channel blockers, local anesthetic blockers
Spinal Cord Stimulation

The principle treatment for RSD/CRPS is physical therapy. The problem is that the joint or limb may be having such severe pain that activity is limited secondary to this. Further immobilization and guarding of the limb aggravates the condition. Our approach is to administer aggressive pain control early in the diagnosis of the condition to maximize the use of the extremity. If diagnosed early and treated aggressively, most patients improve.

If you need your Reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome condition diagnosed, or are seeking a  pain management specialist for your Reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome, the pain management doctors of Park West Pain Management of Manhattan, New York and Staten Island, New York 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.