[Treatment and evolution of algodystrophy of the foot. Retrospective study of 199 cases]

This retrospective review presents the results of treating 199 patients with sympathetic reflex dystrophy of the foot: 141 of traumatic and 58 of non-traumatic origin. Calcitonin (177 patients) improved or cured 62.2 p. 100 of these patients and was equally effective for pseudo inflammatory and ischemic (cold) stages of the disease. Among the therapeutic means available, regional sympathetic blockade with guanethidine (49 patients, 163 treatments) provided 80 p. 100 improvement or cure, with twice as many patients in the hot phase as in the cold. All patients were cured: 75 p. 100 in less than a year, 4.6 p. 100 with moderate, non-handicapping sequelae. Normal activities were partially reinstituted 3.5 +/- 2.8 months (post-trauma) or 1.9 +/- 1 months (non-trauma) after treatment. They were completely possible 5 months after the end of treatment in both groups. In the trauma group, 73 patients had work-related accidents: their evolution was the same as that of the other patients in this group. When present, psychological background (35 p. 100 of the cases) only delayed progress in the non-traumatic group (9.9 vs 6.5 months).