PAIN DYSFUNCTION SYNDROME OF THE KNEE

Pain dysfunction syndrome is a descriptive term recommended by Amadio( 1) to describe patients whose pain is excessive, nonanatomic, and out of proportion to their injury. This retrospective review reports the e ffectiveness of a differential epidural block in the evaluation of the se patients, Four patterns of response were identified with the block: 1) reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) (14%), 2) somatic (9%), 3) mixe d sympathetic and somatic (27%), and 4) central (50%). The inciting in jury in 70% of the patients was a minor strain, sprain, or contusion, Despite accurate diagnosis, the results in compensation cases with pai n dysfunction syndrome are exceedingly poor.