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MEDICAL ANIMATION TRANSCRIPT: Complex regional pain syndrome, or CRPS, formally known as reflex sympathetic dystrophy, or RSD, is a chronic condition that causes persistent, burning pain and swelling in your arms, hands, legs, or feet. Your body's normal response to an injury begins when pain receptors deliver pain messages in the form of nerve impulses to your brain. Once these impulses reach the pain centers in your brain, the pain centers generate new impulses and send them through your sympathetic nervous system to the area of injury. The sympathetic impulses trigger an inflammatory response, causing blood vessels to expand. The inflammatory response also leads to swelling and redness in the damaged tissue. As your wound heals, the swelling and redness subsides, and the pain goes away. However if you have complex regional pain syndrome, the pain and swelling do not go away after your wound heals and may worsen over time. Although the exact cause is unknown, one theory suggests that after your injury has healed, abnormal impulses continue to travel along nerves to your skin and blood vessels, stimulating the inflammatory response. There are two types of complex regional pain syndrome, though the symptoms are the same for both. If you have CRPS I, your condition may have been triggered by an illness or injury, but you do not have a nerve injury in the affected area. If you have CRPS II, your condition is clearly linked to a nerve injury in the affected area. Treatment of complex regional pain syndrome is focused on pain management as there is no cure for this condition. Your treatment options may include pain medication, physical therapy, a nerve block, implantation of a pain controlling device, surgery, and psychosocial support.
"A few words about The Doe Report: recently in a brachial plexus injury
case, we used an image from The Doe Report to demonstrate the injury. We
downloaded the PDF file image, and were amazed at the quality. The hard
copies that you sent were even more clear. As well, we could not have been
happier when you customized the image and reversed the injury from the left
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The speed and cost-effectiveness of the product made it the perfect tool for
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Andrew Needle
Needle Gallagher & Ellenberg, P.A.
Miami, FL
"It is with great enthusiasm that I recommend Medical Legal Art. We have
used their services for three years and always found their professionalism,
quality of work, and timely attention to detail to exceed our expectations.
We recently settled two complicated catastrophic injury cases. One medical
malpractice case involving a spinal abscess settled for 3.75 million and the
other involving injuries related to a motor vehicle accident settled for 6.9
million. We consider the artwork provided by MLA to have been invaluable in
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I highly recommend MLA to anyone seeking high quality, detailed medical
legal artwork."
E. Marcus Davis, Esq.
Davis Zipperman, Krischenbaum & Lotito
Atlanta, GA www.emarcusdavis.com
"Medical Legal Art has always performed quality and efficient work. The
doctors that review the exhibits are always amazed at the precise
descriptions and drawings."
Michael Beckman
Viles Law Firm, P.A.
Fort Meyers, FL
"I wanted to take some time out to let you know what a wonderful job you did
with the 'collapsed lung/fractured rib' illustrations. They were both
detailed and accurate. My medical expert was comfortable working with them
and he spent at least an hour explaining to the jury the anatomy of the
lungs, the ribs and the injuries depicted in the illustrations. Needless to
say, the jury was riveted to the doctor during his testimony.
The jury returned a verdict for $800,000.00 and I'm sure we would not have
done so well if not for the visualizations we were able to put forth with
your assistance. Lastly, my special thanks to Alice [Senior Medical
Illustrator] who stayed late on Friday night and patiently dealt with my
last minute revisions."
Medical Legal Art creates medical demonstrative evidence (medical
illustrations, drawings, pictures, graphics, charts, medical animations,
anatomical models, and interactive presentations) for use during legal
proceedings, including research, demand letters, client conferences,
depositions, arbitrations, mediations, settlement conferences, mock jury
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advice. If you have legal questions, you should find a lawyer with whom you
can discuss your case issues. If you have medical questions, you should seek the advice of a healthcare provider.