General Information
In the final stage of Sudeck’s disease, the affected limb may show stiffening of the joint and shrunken skin, tendons and muscles in severe pain, which in turn may lead to a loss of function. In order to provide the patient with pain relief, interdisciplinary treatment is generally important. Physiotherapy/physical gymnastics plays an important role here, in addition to drug treatment, with connective tissue massage being the first step in all physiotherapeutic measures.
Often the affected body parts are so sensitive that the physiotherapist has to work on body parts that are far away from the affected region and do not cause pain to the patient but still have an effect on the affected region. Every second patient complains of tremor (shaking) of the hand, somewhat less frequently involuntary muscle twitches (myoclonies) occur. Sensitivity disorders also frequently occur.
Many patients suffer from a greatly increased sensitivity to pain (hyperalgesia) or feel pain when the skin is actually touched without pain (allodynia). A large proportion of Sudeck’s disease patients also experience permanent pain at rest. The character of the pain ranges from burning to tingling and also varies greatly in intensity from patient to patient. More rarely, numbness or even a feeling of alienation of the affected hand occurs. In the acute stage, there is often increased hair and nail growth, whereas in the atrophic stage, hair and nail growth can be greatly reduced.
Summary
As you can see, the treatment of Sudeck’s disease is very multifaceted, but it can provide the patient with the necessary pain relief, provided that the patient engages in regular physiotherapeutic treatment using connective tissue massage and physiotherapy to strengthen the affected limbs and regularly carries out his or her learned self-exercise program. In Sudeck’s disease, both drug therapy (e.g. painkillers) and non-drug therapy (physiotherapy) should be used.
