NeuroTalk Support Groups - Anyone try plexus for Rsd

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Anyone try plexus for Rsd

I have RSD for 10 yrs n have done everything to help with pain. I'm at the point doctors say there isn't any thing more they can do. So I'm on OxyContins n morphine for the pain .. I had a few ppl tell me that I should try plexus that it helped them has anyone tried it and has it worked for them ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blueflower (Post 1225646)

No experience with it, Blueflower, also never heard of "plexus". What does it entail precisely if I may ask.

For me the oral meds (neurontin/gabapentin) + pain patches (buprenorphin) and sublingual buprenorphin work for pain relief. I do have chronic stage CRPS. So that has been with me for 21 years this year (21 September: 21 years). I got no pain relief for almost 3 years, then mild pain relief at first that took the sharpness away (Tramadol), and since 2004 I have been on Neurontin / buprenorphin and that is what brings my pain to an acceptable level (it's "liveable").

It's been a long road and journey for me...

Hopefully it won't have to be for you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blueflower (Post 1225646)

Sorry to hear about your pain. Could you please explain Plexus. Is someone trying to sell you a diet?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shay08 (Post 1225959)

Sorry to hear about your pain. Could you please explain Plexus. Is someone trying to sell you a diet?

I know. It sounds so odd, and I've also never heard of it. Maybe it's half of the term, that the OP doesn't have the name complete, or... something.

Perhaps she means this?

Plasma Exchange Therapy in Patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. - PubMed - NCBI

Quote:

Pain Physician. 2015 Jul-Aug;18(4):383-94.
Plasma Exchange Therapy in Patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.
Aradillas E, Schwartzman RJ, Grothusen JR, Goebel A, Alexander GM1.
Author information
Abstract
BACKGROUND:

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a severe chronic pain condition that most often develops following trauma. Some investigators have postulated CRPS to be a post-traumatic neuralgia associated with distal degeneration of small-diameter peripheral axons. Intravenous immunoglobulin treatment (IVIG) has been shown to be efficacious in the treatment of painful polyneuropathies. Some CRPS patients have been reported to respond to IVIG. Based on a recent hypothesis proposing an autoimmune etiology for CRPS, we decided to offer plasma exchange therapy (PE) to CRPS patients with a clinical presentation suggestive of a small fiber neuropathy.
OBJECTIVES:

To evaluate the efficacy of PE in a group of CRPS patients with a clinical presentation suggestive of a small fiber neuropathy that were either non-responders or poor responders to their current treatment.
STUDY DESIGN:

This is a retrospective case series study of CRPS patients that met the Budapest diagnostic criteria for CRPS and received PE as treatment for their illness between September 2012 and June 2014. Approval for this review was granted by the Drexel University Institutional Review Board.
SETTING:

Drexel University College of Medicine pain clinic
METHODS:

Thirty-three CRPS patients that received PE treatment were retrospectively studied. The workup for these patients consisted of a complete medical and pain evaluation, the completion of the short-form McGill questionnaire, quantitative sensory testing (QST), and skin punch biopsy. The PE protocol was as follows: all patients had a series of PE therapies (range 5 to 11 with a mean of 7.2) performed over a 2 to 3 week period. Following the PE series, the patients had a pain evaluation and completed the short-form McGill questionnaire. Patients that responded to PE were offered maintenance therapy consisting of either weekly PE or other immune modulating agents. In these patients, their pain was evaluated during the maintenance phase.
RESULTS:

Thirty of the 33 patients demonstrated significant (P < 0.01) median pain reduction of 64% following the initial series of PE. Three patients demonstrated no improvement. Twenty-four patients are receiving maintenance therapy, the pain reduction in these patients following the initial PE series has been maintained with either weekly PE (n = 15), oral immune modulating agents (n = 8), or IVIG (n = 1). The remaining 6 patients are not receiving maintenance therapy and their pain has returned to pre-treatment levels. In addition, this study suggests that patients with the greatest loss of small fibers and the greatest temperature sensory deficits are most likey to benefit from PE therapy.
LIMITATIONS:

The major limitation of this study is its retrospective nature which includes non-randomization, non-blinding, and an uncontrolled design.
CONCLUSIONS:

This study shows that PE is effective in a subset of patients with severe long-standing CRPS and that the reduction in pain following the initial series of PE treatments can be maintained on a weekly PE schedule, IVIG, or with other immune modulating drugs. Large, randomized, placebo controlled studies may be required to confirm and expand these results. Such studies may lead to new therapies for this severe life-altering condition.

PMID:
26218942

[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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A Google search of "Plexus for pain" brought up Plexus Fast Relief capsules which contain green lipped mussel powder, tumeric and other ingredients that have anti-inflammatory properties. I am not familiar with it.

As far as supplements I have only tried the few that have at least a little research based evidence behind them for helping CRPS or inflammation. NAC - n-acetyl cysteine is one recommended in early cold CRPS. (Mine was hot, so never tried this) I did take Vit C for a while and still do before and after any "trauma" or procedure. I also have used PEA Pure (palmitoylethanolamide) which is a fatty acid approved in Germany and Italy for neuropathic pain. I took it for months and still keep it around in case of emergency. It reportedly downregulates microglia and its developer Rita Montalcini won the Nobel prize for discovering nerve growth factor during WWII. I ordered it from overseas but see that it is now also made by a US company.