Philadelphia Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) Lawyer

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a pain disorder that is often hard to identify and diagnose – and even harder to pinpoint to a specific cause in many cases. As such, when CRPS shows up in Workers’ Comp cases, it can be difficult to prove that it was work-related, that the symptoms truly are severe, and that it even exists.

Our attorneys have direct experience helping injured workers get compensation for CRPS and can fight for you, too. We know what it takes to prove the condition to the Workers’ Comp Judge and what it takes to get treatment covered, let alone lost earnings.

For a free review of your potential case, call Cardamone Law’s Certified Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Specialists at (267) 651-7945.

What is CRPS And What Causes It?

CRPS is a nervous system disorder that makes patients feel intense pain that might be disproportionate to the actual injuries or wounds they have. It can also come with extreme sensitivity to touch, temperature changes, and pain, and it may also be marked by changes in the appearance of the skin, hair, or nails in the affected area.

CRPS usually comes in two types, with Type I occurring after an injury but without any specific nerve damage and Type II occurring in conjunction with specific, documented nerve damage. Type I was often formerly referred to as RSD, reflex sympathetic dystrophy (not to be confused with rejection sensitive dysphoria, which is an ADHD symptom). Type II was formerly called “causalgia.”

In certain people, the sympathetic nervous system can play a role in the pain, whereas in other cases, CRPS is triggered in the immune system, which then leads to discoloration, temperature changes, and swelling in the affected area.

With either type of CRPS, you usually face symptoms after receiving another injury. Often, the injury will result in more pain and discomfort than you might expect, including a sharp or painful feeling upon touching the affected area. With CRPS, any injury can be much worse, and getting treatment for the increased pain and sensitivity can require additional medication, therapy, etc.

The symptoms are different in each case. We have had clients with no discoloration but with swelling and intense pain. In other cases, our clients have experienced abnormal hair growth patterns and temperature changes but no swelling. The symptoms of complex regional pain syndrome can migrate to the opposite limb or other body parts. It often worsens over time. Dealing with these extraordinary diagnoses often leads to anxiety and depression.

How CRPS Makes Workers’ Compensation Claims Challenging in Philadelphia

When our CRPS lawyers bring Workers’ Compensation claims for our clients, we need to be able to prove a few major elements to get the claim accepted. We generally need to show that the injury was work-related, that it prevents you from working, and – in order to claim coverage for any specific treatments – we need medical evidence that those treatments will be helpful for you. Insurance carriers often challenge these three points, and the reality is that proving these elements in CRPS cases is harder than with other injuries and conditions.

Proving Work-Relatedness

CRPS can be difficult to prove, in general. Doctors do not often agree on what set of symptoms must manifest in order for the diagnosis to be made.

Especially when it comes to Type I CRPS, it can be difficult to diagnose or observe, given that there is no documented nerve damage that would explain the condition. Instead, doctors need to rely on the patient’s explanation of their experiences and believe them in order to give a CRPS diagnosis in the first place. However, when there are physical symptoms – such as a change in skin texture or hair in the affected area – it can be easier to document the condition.

From there, we need to prove that it is connected to your work injury. If the CRPS symptoms only arose after a work injury, and they only arose in the same area of the body that was injured, this makes connecting your CRPS to the accident easier. However, we also need to connect the injury to your work tasks, though that is no more challenging than what needs to be proven in every Workers’ Comp claim.

Proving Disability

Your initial work injury might be serious enough to keep you from working, which means that we do not need to rely on your CRPS as the core injury or condition that keeps you from working. For example, if you had a compound fracture and it is still healing up, you cannot be expected to work with the broken bone and injuries in the first place. However, down the line when those injuries heal, you might still be unable to work because of CRPS resulting from that compound fracture. At that point, we will need medical evidence documenting the injury, the CRPS diagnosis, and the severity of your symptoms.

Chronic pain and disorders like CRPS often keep workers from returning to their jobs, but insurance carriers are often unwilling to accept these claims because of the somewhat invisible nature of CRPS. As such, we need to make sure that your doctors are closely documenting your symptoms and that you have the proper expert reviews to show that your ability to work is indeed affected by this condition.

Getting Treatment

For a treatment to be approved and covered under Workers’ Compensation, there needs to be medical evidence that the requested treatment is actually helpful for treating your condition. Insurance carriers will often deny novel or cutting-edge treatments and therapies, but these are often the ones that work best for rare disorders and disorders that are not well understood, like CRPS. As such, the employer might request “utilization reviews” to challenge the efficacy of your treatments, and we may need to hire medical experts to counter their doctors’ opinions.

Some CRPS and RSD doctors will try ketamine infusions and blocks and others will prescribe medications and activity modification. We have had clients who tried ketamine and it helped them significantly, while others did not get great results. It requires a case-by-case approach.

What Does Workers’ Comp Cover for CRPS in Philadelphia?

As mentioned, Workers’ Comp should pay for medical expenses and lost wages for most injury cases that keep you from working and require medical treatment. CRPS often requires expensive care, including the initial diagnostics, and it is often a serious syndrome that can keep you from working, resulting in wage-loss damages. In some cases, your initial injury that eventually led to CRPS might have involved serious injuries that left you permanently maimed or with lost function. In these cases, as well as cases of lost hearing, lost sight, or facial scars, there are also “specific loss” benefits you can get paid for that loss.

Call Our CRPS Lawyers in Philadelphia Today

For help with your Workers’ Comp claim, call the CRPS lawyers at Cardamone Law at (267) 651-7945.