ABSTRACT
Reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) is the most unpleasant and uncomfortable form of chronic pain. It is the extreme prototype of disabling chronic pain. The chronic pain of RSD is typified by a marked emotional connotation. It is invariably accompanied by anxiety, phobia, and neuropsychological disturbances in the form of irritability, agitation, and depression. RSD and its management are in an infantile stage. There is a lot to be learned regarding the mechanism and management of this very painful and unpleasant condition. Chronic pain and RSD are too diffuse, too elusive, and one lesion or surgical disruption in one area of the peripheral or central nervous system cannot control such a diffuse phenomenon and is apt to fail. The trigger point injection is not just a temporary relief of pain or placebo effect. Thermography has one main use in diagnosis and management of chronic pain, and that is the identification of RSD. In this regard, no other test can match thermography.
