Introduction: Patients with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) suffer from chronic refractory pain and a reduced quality of life. Providing timely and proper rehabilitation treatments can alleviate the pain, improve the quality of life, and reduce ...
Introduction: Patients with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) suffer from chronic refractory pain and a reduced quality of life. Providing timely and proper rehabilitation treatments can alleviate the pain, improve the quality of life, and reduce the burden of medical expenses. This study investigated factors influencing the effectiveness of inpatient rehabilitation in CRPS patients and identifies indications for such treatment.
Methods: We retrospectively reviewed medical records from January 2017 to June 2020. Patients over 18 years of age who were diagnosed with CRPS according to the Budapest criteria and received inpatient rehabilitation during that period were included. The rehabilitation program included medication, interventions, and physiotherapy. The primary outcome of the present study was the pain intensity at discharge minus the pain intensity at admission according to a numeric rating scale (NRS). To analyze the effect of inpatient rehabilitation on pain improvement, the following factors were analyzed: demographic factors, duration of disease, using an intravenous opioid as a rescue medicine, having a spinal cord stimulator, receiving scrambler treatment, CRPS severity score, CRPS type, region affected by CRPS, three-phase bone scan (TPBS) result, electromyography result, thermography result, and NRS score at admission. The Mann–Whitney test, simple linear regression test, and multiple regression analysis were performed to identify variables associated with pain improvement.
Results: A total of 51 patients (19 male and 32 female) were included. Patients without abnormalities in their TPBS had better pain relief than those with abnormalities (mean difference = 0.82, P = 0.041). However, patients without abnormalities in the thermography test had worse outcomes than those with abnormalities (mean difference = 1.89, P = 0.032). Patients who had pain intensity ≥ 5 at initial admission had better results from inpatient rehabilitation than those who had pain intensity < 5 (mean difference = 1.49, P = 0.001). A simple linear regression test also revealed that the initial pain intensity significantly influences the effect of inpatient rehabilitation therapy, with the effect increasing with the initial pain intensity (R2 = 0.263, β = −0.486, P < 0.001). In the multiple regression analysis, only the initial pain intensity showed statistically significant results (adjusted R2 = 0.256, β = −0.584, P = 0.002).
Conclusions: Our results suggest that some clinical factors can affect the pain relief effect of inpatient rehabilitation. Severe initial pain intensity, abnormalities in a thermography test, and a lack of abnormalities in a TPBS gave better outcomes from inpatient rehabilitation. We suggest that these are indicators for inpatient rehabilitation therapy for patients with CRPS.