• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.186-190
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• 1991

Causalgia is an extremely incapacitating disease often associated with a major peripheral nerve injury, which is characterized by sustained diffuse burning pain, allodynia and hyperpathia. The condition follows traumatic nerve lesions, often combined with vasomotor and sudomotor disturbances and later trophic changes. While sympathectomy has been the classical treatment of causalgia, others nonsurgical therapies such as regional sympathetic block, IV regional sympathetic block, oral adrenolytic drugs, transcutaneous electrical nerve simulation, physical theraphy, cryotheraphy and psychotheraphy have been used. Causalgia is rare in children and early treatment is controversial because of the possibility of many different complications following aggressive treatment. This is a report of a 6-year-old girl with causalgia suffered after a right posterior tibial nerve injury following an intragluteal injection of an antipyretics. We successfully treated this syndrome with continuous epidural block using 0.5% lidocaine and no specific complication was encountered.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.617-622
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• 1998

A cryotherapy system using cold air was developed. The developed system had superior low-temperature characteristics with various flow rates and nozzle sizes, and used R-404A, as a coolant, which has no destructive effects of Ozone layers. Flow rates and the treatment time can be easily altered during the operation. In addition, and alarm system was designed for the overload, overheat, and over-charge of the machine. For clinical applications, skin temperatures, intra-articular temperatures of the knee joint and intra-muscluar temperatures of the gluteal muscles were measured during and after the cryotherapy. After a 5-minute therapy, skin and intra-articular temperatures decreased by $23.3{\pm}4.7 and 4.1 {\pm}1.0^{circ}C$, respectively. A 5-minute cryotherapy was good enough to maintain low intra-articular temperatures for 2-3 hours. Resting intra-muscular temperatures in 2, 4, and 6cm deep in the gluteal muscle were $36.5{\pm}1.2, 36.9{\pm}0.2, 37.1{\pm}0.2^{circ}C$, respectively (p<0.05). Lowest temperatures in 2, 4, and 6cm depth were $35.1{\pm}0.7, 36.2{\pm}0.4, 36.9{\pm}0.3^{circ}C$, respectively (p<0.05). Temperatures after a 2-hour cold air application on the skin and in the muscle in dept도 of 2, 4, and 6cm were $32.2{\pm}1.1, 36.2{\pm}0.5, 36.6{\pm}0.3, 36.9{\pm}0.3^{circ}C$respectively (p<0.05). Temperatures on the skin and in the muscle significantly decreased after 2 hours, compared with before cold air application (p<0.05). The intra-muscular temperature was changed more slowly than the skin temperature, and the deeper the muscle, the lesser temperature changes. The effect of a 5-minute cold air application lasts up to 2 hours, and it seems that the rebound-rise of the temperature dut to the reactive vasodilatation does not occur in the gluteal muscle.