Are you suffering from CRPS? Are you being the one who want to be standout everything from others does? Now, with complex regional pain syndrome, you can only just stand up. Really CRPS will pull you back from your fast-paced lifestyle. Mostly, a lot of patients will suffer from CRPS after recovered from an injury, fracture or surgery. It is widely believed that CRPS is difficult to treat, but researchers have found that ketamine infusions may help in stopping the nerves from firing pain signals. Pain management specialist Dr.Shawn Roofian, MD, in California can treat with complex regional pain syndrome patients using ketamine infusions.

How do I find out the pain is due to CRPS?

RSD disease now called as CRPS is not well understood and is often misdiagnosed. First, book an appointment with a pain management doctor near you. He can only review the pain and analyze all the other possibilities that cause this pain.

• Your doctor may question you whether do you have more than one of the symptoms mentioned below:
• Is the color of your skin changed?
• Is there any swelling in skin?
• Do you notice changes in the growth of your nails and/or hair?
• Are you able to move freely as before?

If you would say ‘YES’, then doctor says it’s CRPS!

What to do after CRPS diagnosis?

After your doctor diagnosed that you have CRPS, first he will try with other pain treatment methods to check if it will relieve your pain or not.

• Prescription pain relievers
•  Steroids
• Nerve blocks
• Physical therapy
• Neuromodulation using electrical stimulation

But, still the pain sustained, Ketamine may be the next treatment.

How ketamine suppress CRPS pain?

CRPS will make changes in the central nervous system of your body. These changes trigger the pain signals from your body when compared with the pain felt by normal persons. This results in activating the NMDA receptor causing intense, severe and amplified pain. Ketamine is an effective anesthetic that blocks the receptors from firing and in turn decreases the pain.

Can everyone go for ketamine pain treatment?

Ketamine is not for every patient with CRPS. Depending on the CRPS patient’s health conditions, Ketamine will be suggested. Thought, ketamine infusion therapy can provide real relief for many patients with pain, we reserve ketamine as a last resort treatment for CRPS. Before we start ketamine therapy, we screen people carefully to ensure they don’t have conditions that could worsen with ketamine, like schizophrenia or heart rhythm issues.

How do I take ketamine for pain?

We inject ketamine into your blood through an intravenous (IV) line, called an infusion. At Integrated Pain Management Clinic, patients receive ketamine infusions at Beverly Hills’ and Tarzana. One can come to our clinic every day, Monday through Friday by booking an appointment in prior. You should take your ketamine infusion treatment for three to four hours daily. At our clinic, a team of nurses will always monitor you throughout the infusion therapy and make sure all the vital signs mentioned below remains normal.

• Breathing
• Blood pressure
• Heart rate
• Oxygen levels

Am I awake or power napped during the ketamine infusion?

The ketamine dose we use for infusion treatment is sub-anesthetic which is lower than the anesthesia. So, first you will likely be awake. As the dose increases, you may get drowsy and fall asleep. During the infusion, you will be asked to respond to stimuli and make you conscious. After the infusion is completed, you will be asked to stay in our clinic for minimum one hour to confirm if you are alert and able to move around. But, it is not advisable to self drive to home after infusion. So, accompany with any of your family members, neighbors or relatives for treatment so that they will take you home.

Will I feel better after the first infusion?

We would like to provide pain relief throughout the week. But, if you feel no improvements in your pain, we may stop after day one or two of infusions. For the patients gone through the infusion up to day five, may feel more relief from pain. On the other hand, if patients suffer extreme versions of these side effects mentioned below, we will stop the infusion.

• Hallucinations
• Nausea
• Nightmares

How soon will I return to my lifestyle?

50 to 60 percent of CRPS patients get relief using ketamine infusion treatment. Most patients feel the difference right after the infusion, but every patient’s response is different.   You may have relief for one month, or it may last up to 11 months. If you felt significant pain reduction, we could repeat the infusion three to six months after the first one.