classification
Last reviewed 01/2018
Complex regional pain syndrome has been divided into two types. Type I (reflex sympathetic dystrophy), the original insult that triggered the syndrome was not a nerve injury. A common example is that of a distal radius and ulna fracture. For type II (causalgia), a nerve injury clearly precedes the onset of pain. Common examples of the latter include incidental injuries to small peripheral nerve branches in surgery for other conditions eg damage to palmar cutaneous branch of the median nerve and the superficial branch of the radial nerve.