Iatrogenic causalgia. Classification, clinical findings, and legal ramifications
S. H. Horowitz
Eleven patients had causalgia that resulted from surgical procedures or
improperly placed injections. It is the intense, unremitting, burning
quality of the pain that distinguishes causalgia from other nerve injury
sequelae. The mode of injury, as well as the symptoms and signs and their
duration, suggests that the recent tendency to divide causalgia into
"major" and "minor" forms on the basis of its occurrence during war or
peace, with or without autonomic dysfunction, is improper. Most of these
patients have sought legal redress. All cases for which the legal issues
are complete have been settled in favor of the plaintiffs.
