Clinical Experience of Movement Therapy for Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy of the Upper Extremity

Abstract

Good results were previously obtained for a reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) patient through therapeutic exercise with pain relief in collaboration with the Department of Anesthesiology.
For 11 cases with RSD of the upper extremity the similar treatment was administered in this study, and changes in movement disorders and clinical symptoms were investigated before and after exercise. Attentions were directed to functional movement disorder, limitation of ROM, pain, allodynia, swelling, vasomotor disorder and dystrophic symptoms. Score determination was based on RSD Score introduced by Gibbsons et al.
Functional movement disorder, limitation of ROM and clinical symptoms were totally improved, but allodynia and dystrophic symptoms showed no significant improvement. These results suggest the effectiveness of the combined treatment of pain relief and exercise therapy for patients with RSD. Further studies would be necessary for chronic patients, and patients with serious allodynia or dystrophic symptoms.