title: Pain dysfunction syndrome of the knee.
abstract: Pain dysfunction syndrome is a descriptive term recommended by Amadio to describe patients whose pain is excessive, nonanatomic, and out of proportion to their injury. This retrospective review reports the effectiveness of a differential epidural block in the evaluation of these patients. Four patterns of response were identified with the block: 1) reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) (14%), 2) somatic (9%), 3) mixed sympathetic and somatic (27%), and 4) central (50%). The inciting injury in 70% of the patients was a minor strain, sprain, or contusion. Despite accurate diagnosis, the results in compensation cases with pain dysfunction syndrome are exceedingly poor.
authors.affiliation: University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Pa, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Neuschwander
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Drez
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Heck
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000767:Anesthesia, Epidural; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007718:Knee Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009407:Nerve Block; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010148:Intractable Pain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013577:Syndrome; D016896:Treatment Outcome