Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Multicenter Study
Sympathetic Blocks as a Predictor for Response to Ketamine Infusion in Patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome: A Multicenter Study.
Ketamine infusions are frequently employed for refractory complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), but there are limited data on factors associated with treatment response. Sympathetic blocks are also commonly employed in CRPS for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes and generally precede ketamine infusions. ⋯ The response to sympathetic blocks may predict response to ketamine infusion in CRPS patients, with alleviation of the affective component of pain and predilection to a positive placebo effect being possible explanations.