Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy   /  Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
RSD / CRPS

This chronic pain syndrome most often results from an injury, even minor trauma. Acutely, the clinical manifestations include intense, burning pain and skin changes indicative of dysfunction of the sympathetic nervous system. Later, spontaneously occurring severe pain is sometimes associated with wasting (atrophic) changes in the extremity's skin, subcutaneous tissue and bone.

Often, the pain reported by individuals with this syndrome is out of proportion to the severity of the injury. When left untreated, the signs and symptoms may worsen over time and may result in permanent disability and spreading of the disease to multiple extremities and face.

The disease may be mild or catastrophic. In worse case scenarios, RSD / CRPS can lead to quadriplegia. Even worse than paralysis in all extremities, is the excruciating pain that these patients experience.

In some patients, there is sensitivity to light touch so severe that patients may be unable to wear clothing in the affected area. Other patients have had to have an extremity amputated, not because of the pain, but due to complications of the disease. This dreadful disease has affected millions of people around the world, and the number of cases among children is alarming.

THERE IS NO CURE... YET

Unfortunately, there is no cure for Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy as yet and that is the reason the International Research Foundation for RSD / CRPS has been established.

We here at the foundation are committed to the establishment of a worldwide research network that connects research centers all over the world, creating a real-time database with up to the minute results of ongoing RSD research projects.

Furthermore, the foundation is committed to raising funds to support clinical investigations anywhere in the world that show promise of curing this dreaded disease.

The Foundation's International Scientific Advisory Committee will serve in an advisory capacity to various governments across the globe. For example, the Committee recently served as a consultant to the US Government in formulating federal regulations governing the adjudication of disability claims involving RSD / CRPS through the Social Security Administration. On October 20, 2003, the Committee's efforts became public. The US Government published its first standards for the diagnosis and treatment of RSD / CRPS in the Federal Register via the Social Security Administration. For a copy of the new federal regulations in PDF format, click on "Scientific Advisory Committee Assists US Government" below:

Scientific Advisory Committee Assists US Government

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