Editor-in-Chief: Alaa Abd-Elsayed, MD, PhD
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BACKGROUND: Many treatments for severe complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) are ineffective as patients may still experience pain even after various therapeutic approaches. Therefore, it is important to consider novel and creative treatment options for patients suffering from unremitting refractory pain.
CASE REPORT: We report the case of a patient with severe CRPS, which proved to be refractory to numerous conventional treatments. CRPS is a disease that causes chronic pain, typically in distal extremities.
CONCLUSIONS: Treatment for CRPS includes pharmacotherapy, sympathetic nerve block, and/or various surgical procedures. However, some patients may receive little benefit from these treatments with persistent severe pain despite undergoing treatment. Thus, novel treatments have been attempted to lessen CRPS-mediated pain. We present a case where one of these unconventional therapeutic approaches was utilized involving the administration of sufentanil through an intrathecal pump providing effective pain reduction in a patient with CRPS.
KEY WORDS: Complex regional pain syndrome, sufentanil, intrathecal pump, pharmacotherapy, pain
