[Complex regional pain syndrome. Clinical and autonomic disorders during acute and chronic illness stages]

In order to describe autonomic dysfunction and clinical outcome in complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) 20 patients were followed-up. First investigation was performed in the acute stage of CRPS and the second investigation two years later after therapy (individual, not standardized). Skin temperature and sudomotor function (thermoregulatory sweating (TST) and quantitative sudomotor axon reflex (QSART)) were assessed, and a clinical follow-up was performed carefully. Skin temperature was warmer on the affected side at first investigation (p < 0.001) and colder at follow-up (p < 0.02). Sudomotor output was enhanced on the affected side both after TST (p < 0.005) and QSART (p < 0.05) at first investigation. At follow-up, however, while thermoregulatory sweating was still increased (p < 0.04) QSART was not different. While autonomic failure improves as assessed by clinical examination, therapy failed to alleviate pain significantly. But patients' self-assesment of therapy was mostly positive (16 of 20, p < 0.001). The present study has shown that the autonomic failure may be probably the result of central disturbances of thermoregulation, but secondary peripheral mechanisms also contribute to our findings. Individual based therapy seems to be efficacious for long term treatment, but for final judge controlled studies are required.