Airing Pain 95: Complex Regional Pain Syndrome 2 of 2

In the sec­ond part in Air­ing Pain’s series on com­plex region­al pain syn­drome, Paul speaks to spe­cial­ists and patients at the Roy­al Nation­al Hos­pi­tal for Rheumat­ic Dis­ease CRPS reha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­gramme in Bath

This pro­gramme was fund­ed by grants from RS Mac­don­ald Char­i­ta­ble Trust and the Hos­pi­tal Sat­ur­day Fund.

Com­plex region­al pain syn­drome affects 1 in 3,800 new peo­ple every year in the UK.[1] It is a poor­ly under­stood con­di­tion and it can be frus­trat­ing for patients who are suf­fer­ing to find peace of mind. The Roy­al Nation­al Hos­pi­tal for Rheumat­ic Dis­ease in Bath began its reha­bil­i­ta­tion ser­vice for indi­vid­u­als with CRPS in 1999 and is one of the very few in the UK with out­pa­tient and inpa­tient care ded­i­cat­ed to CRPS.

The cen­tre, led by Pro­fes­sor Can­dy McCabe, strives to improve patients’ lives through up-to-date mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary tech­niques rang­ing from occu­pa­tion­al ther­a­py to mir­ror visu­al feed­back (MVF).

Michael and Julie, patients cur­rent­ly enrolled in the reha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­gramme, speak to Paul about the injuries that caused them to devel­op the syn­drome, how it affects their lives, and how the pro­gramme is help­ing them cope.

Paul also sits in on a ses­sion with Senior Phys­io­ther­a­pist Emma Houli­han and patient Chris, whose entire left side of his body has been affect­ed by CRPS, to explore the ther­a­pies used at the cen­tre to try to help him regain nor­mal sensation.

Clin­i­cal Spe­cial­ist Phys­io­ther­a­pist Jane Hall describes the process that new patients will go through, and how the cen­tre helps patients even after they have left the programme.

Issues cov­ered in this pro­gramme include: CRPS: com­plex region­al pain syn­drome acci­dent, visu­al feed­back, mir­ror ther­a­py, chron­ic pri­ma­ry pain, post-sur­gi­cal pain, occu­pa­tion­al ther­a­py, psy­chol­o­gy, reha­bil­i­ta­tion, relax­ation, Rheumat­ic Dis­ease and sleep.

Con­trib­u­tors:

• Pro­fes­sor Can­dy McCabe, Clin­i­cal Lead for the com­plex region­al pain syn­drome service.
• Emma Hou­lian, Senior Physiotherapist
• Char­lie Ewer-Smith, Clin­i­cal Spe­cial­ist Occu­pa­tion­al Therapist
• Dr Jane Hall, Clin­i­cal Spe­cial­ist Physiotherapist
• Keri John­son, Clin­i­cal Spe­cial­ist Physiotherapist
• Chris, patient in the reha­bil­i­ta­tion programme
• Michael, patient in the reha­bil­i­ta­tion programme
• Julie, patient in the reha­bil­i­ta­tion programme.

More infor­ma­tion:

• Nation­al cen­tre for the man­age­ment of CRPS web­site: rnhrd.nhs.uk/page/79
• The CRPS net­work, web­site run by the team in Bath: crp­snetworkuk.org
• NHS Choic­es on CRPS: nhs.uk/Conditions/Complex-Regional-Pain-Syndrome/Pages/Introduction.aspx
• CRPS UK, patient led organ­i­sa­tion for peo­ple with CRPS: crps-uk.org/
• Burn­ing Nights, increas­ing aware­ness of CRPS in the UK and world­wide: burningnightscrps.org/.

[1] NHS: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Complex-Regional-Pain-Syndrome/Pages/Introduction.aspx.