Awareness of complex regional pain syndrome among medical professionals

Abstract

Background Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a chronic inflammatory and neurological condition with a complex broad spectrum of symptoms and requires input from various clinical specialists such as orthopedic surgeons, anesthetists, rheumatologists, and rehabilitation physicians. Aim The aim is to study the awareness of CRPS among medical professionals (Orthopedics, Neurosurgeons, Family physicians, Internists). Method The study was conducted using a cross‐sectional survey. A postal questionnaire was sent online to different medical professionals. The questionnaire included two sections. The first section was about personal demographic whereas the second section was about the CRPS symptoms, diagnosis criteria, and management. Results The study resulted in a total number of 97 participants that filled the questionnaire completely with the highest number working at tertiary health centers (59.8%) followed by primary health centers (30.9%) and secondary health centers students (9.3%). Seventeen percent of the participants were aware about the diagnostic criteria of this condition, while only 15.4% have applied these criteria before. Awareness of risk factors and complications were 22.7% and 23.7%; respectively. The mean of the cumulative score out of 11 awareness among our participants was 2.48 (range; 0‐10). 37 (38.1%) of the participant scores 0/11 while none of the participants were able to score 11/11. Our study identified an association between years of experience and the level of awareness with a P value of .007. Conclusion The awareness of CRPS among medical professionals was not sufficient to met the recommendation of CRPS criteria and guideline. Physicians from different specialties need to increase their knowledge and awareness about this conditions.