Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy eMedicine Neurology

Description: RSD is a descriptive term meaning a complex disorder or a group of disorders that may develop as a consequence of trauma affecting the limbs, with or without an obvious nerve lesion. RSD also may develop after visceral diseases or CNS lesions or, rarely, without an obvious antecedent event. It consists of pain and related sensory abnormalities, abnormal blood flow and sweating, abnormalities in the motor system, and changes in structure of both superficial and deep tissues ("trophic" changes). Not all components need be present.
Synonyms and related keywords: acute peripheral trophoneurosis, algodystrophy, causalgia, chronic traumatic edema, mimocausalgia, neurovascular posttraumatic painful syndrome, neurovascular reflex dystrophy, neurovascular reflex sympathetic dystrophy, posttraumatic chronic edema, posttraumatic osteoporosis, posttraumatic pain syndrome, posttraumatic sympathetic dystrophy, RSD, shoulder-hand syndrome, spreading neuralgia, Sudeck atrophy, sympathalgia, thermalgia, traumatic angiospasm, traumatic vasospasm, complex regional pain syndrome type 1, CRPS
Eugenia-Daniela Hord, MD & Sajjad Mueed, MD 2006