Intense pain and sensitivity usually following injury to a peripheral nerve.
Pain, usually burning, that is associated with autonomic changes -- change in color of the skin, change in temperature, change in sweating, swelling. Causalgia occurs after a nerve injury.
Definition: Burning pain evoked by the activation of sympathetic efferent fibers. The likely mechanism underlying this syndrome involves ectopic expression of -adrenoceptors on nociceptive afferents following peripheral injury or disease.
disruption in normal flow of sensory information along nerve to brain creating confusion for the brain which is interpreted as a uniquely disabling pain state, constant and highly resistant to normal forms of medical therapy.
A persistent severe burning sensation, usually in the upper limbs following injury to a nerve. The blood supply to the limbs and the growth of the skin and nails may be abnormal as well.
Intense burning pain accompanied by trophic skin changes, caused by injury of specific nerve fibers.
Burning pain associated with previous tissue injury (sympathetic dystrophy)
a burning pain often associated with trophic skin changes in the hand or foot, caused by peripheral nerve injury. The syndrome may be aggravated by the slightest stimuli or it may be intensified by the emotions. Causalgia usually begins several weeks after the initial injury and the pain is described as intense, with patients sometimes taking elaborate precautions to avoid any stimulus they know to be capable of causing a flare-up of symptoms. They often will go to great extremes to protect the affected limb and become preoccupied with such protection. Any one of a variety of injuries to the hand, foot, arm, or leg can lead to causalgia, but in most cases there has been some injury to the median or the sciatic nerve. Injections of a local anesthetic at the painful site may bring relief. Sympathectomy may be necessary to eliminate the severe pain, and in the majority of cases it is quite successful. Psychotherapy may be necessary when emotional instability is suspected. Emotional problems may have been present before the initial injury, or they may result from the intense suffering characteristic of severe causalgia.
a constant, burning type pain