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No Apparent Role of Mediators in Cerebrospinal Fluid in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Related Dystonia

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a little understood syndrome that often occurs after a relatively minor injury or after a trauma like a fracture. The result of CRPS is persistent pain, changes in skin temperature, sweating and swelling. These may also result in dystonia, or abnormal muscle tone, in the affected arm, hand, leg, or foot.

Researchers have had a theory that there may be something in the cerebrospinal fluid that was involved in making biochemical changes, resulting in these affects from the CRPS. A previous study had indicated that there may be elevated IL-1beta and IL-6 in the cerebrospinal fluid, which may be causing part of the problem. This study was undertaken to see if the results would be the same in a second similar study.

To perform the analysis on the cerebrospinal fluid, the researchers obtained samples from 20 patients who had participated in an earlier study and 29 controls who had had spinal anesthesia for non-CRPS related surgical interventions. The researchers were unable to reproduce the findings of the first study. No differences were found in the samples from both the patients with CRPS and those without.

References: Alexander G. Munts, MD, et al. Analysis of Cerebrospinal Fluid Inflammatory Mediators in Chronic Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Related Dystonia. In Clinical Journal of Pain. January 2008. Vol. 24. No. 1.

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