Background:

complex regional pain syndrome is a painful disabling and often chronic condition that remains as one of the most enigmatic diseases since its discovery 150 years ago and presents between the 2 % and the 5 % of adult population and up to the 20 % in children.

Objective:

to update and to deepen in the most important aspects of regional complex pain syndrome.

Methods:

a revision of the literature was made in English and Spanish, available in PubMed Central, Hinari and SciELO was carried out. The following descriptors were used: complex regional pain syndrome, sympathetic reflex dystrophy, Sudeck dystrophy, algodystrophy. Based on the obtained data, a bibliographic revision was made of 167 publishing articles, including 40 citations selected for the research, 38 of them of the last five years.

Results:

it was focus in those controversial topics like: history, epidemiology, physiopathology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, complementary studies and treatment.

Conclusions:

regional complex pain syndrome is a painful enigmatic and visible disorder. The understanding of the complex physiopathology has improved significant advances that will rule out the myth and will perform better therapies. Besides available treatments and which are in study, no standardized protocols are in hand which allows a multidisciplinary approach.

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