CRPS

At PRIZM, we offer comprehensive treatment options for complex regional pain syndrome, or CRPS. This condition causes chronic pain typically in one limb, such as the arm, leg, foot, or hand. CRPS usually affects people after they sustain an injury or trauma that causes damage or malfunction of the peripheral and central nervous systems. The main symptoms of CRPS are pronounced hypersensitivity and prolonged, severe, and constant pain in the affected limb. Sometimes even the slightest touch to the affected area can produce excruciating pain. Patients have described this pain as burning, pins and needles, or a squeezing sensation that can spread from only a small area around the original injury to eventually include the entire limb or even a second limb if left untreated.

Other symptoms associated with CRPS include:

• Changes in skin texture, i.e. the skin around the affected limb appearing thin & shiny
• Loss of hair in the affected area
• Abnormal nail growth on the affected limb
• Changes in skin temperature & color of the affected limb
• Swelling
• Limited mobility & coordination of the affected limb & joints

If you have or think you may have CRPS, our team of pain specialists at PRIZM can provide a diagnosis and treatment plan to help you experience lasting relief. We offer the following treatment options, all customized to your body’s unique needs:

• Medication management, the most common treatment for CRPS and frequently continued in conjunction with many of the following treatments. The team at PRIZM will work to devise an individualized medication regimen that best controls your specific CRPS experience.
• Interventional therapy, a first-line treatment using specialized injections and other procedures to target the source of your pain.
• Ketamine infusion, an intravenous (IV) therapy that we use typically after other treatments have failed.
• Radiofrequency procedures, in which the physician makes a small incision at the treatment site, and using guided imaging, delivers a heated current to the site of the pain, thus disabling the nerve endings causing the pain.
• Dorsal root ganglion (DRG) therapy, which targets lower areas of the body with an implanted device that transmits electrical pulses through electrodes placed on the dorsal root ganglion in the spine. The DRG neurons emitted by the device prevent pain signals from reaching the brain.
• Physical therapy for desensitization, a specialized program that gradually exposes the affected limb to different sensations. This frequently eliminates the hypersensitivity that is the hallmark of CRPS.

Not only does PRIZM offer these comprehensive treatment options, but our pain relief providers also maintain ongoing evaluation and communication with you to modify our treatment plan and ensure that you experience lasting relief.

You don’t have to live with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). Get help from a pain management physician by calling PRIZM at 734.526.8860 or by using our convenient Request an Appointment form. We welcome patients from Canton, Westland, Wayne, Livonia, Garden City, and nearby areas.