Hi there. I have to respectfully disagree with Diana on this point, if appropriate precations are taken. Please check out Mslday's response to a posting I put up the other day, regarding a very successful surgery she had last summer in Germany. (She's posted on it earlier.) The German doctor call it "peridural anesthesia for the lower limbs." Sadly, she says that in Germany, it's now regarded as the "gold standard" for treating new (accute) cases of CRPS. After being on this forum and it's predecessor for years, I can't tell you how much sorrow that fills me with, watching newly diagnosed patients or their parents doing everything in their power to find adequate treatment:
"For a GREAT article on the subject, written for the general reader, see, "The Painful Truth: The Iraq war is a new kind of hell, with more survivors - but more maimed, shattered limbs - than ever, a revolution in battlefield medicine is helping them conquer the pain," by Steve Silberman, Wired, Issue 13.02 - February 2005 http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1...ain&topic_set= The story tells the tale about how one anesthesiologist from Walter Reed revolutionized the treatment of horrific battlefield injuries, all by pumping local anesthetics into the site of the wound. "
Hi Mike,
Great article. This is the same technique I was given following my surgery in Germany this past summer. I had the pump going continuously for 1 week. German doctors consider this the "gold standard" for treating newly diagnosed RSD cases and have been using it with great success for years (they call it a peridural anesthesia for the lower limbs). For the upper limbs my doctor said that they can access the nerves through a spot somewhere in the neck area. I'm happy to see that it is finally making its way to North American hospitals because it will make a huge difference.
MsL
In any event, the entire thread is at
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread72276-2.html if you want to check out some of the other references I posted, basically the same stuff GalenaFaolan referred to in her post on this thread on November 10, 2008, which has apparently been overlooked.
Mike