Written by Dr. Katinka van der Merwe for the RSDSA blog. Ten years ago, I treated my first CRPS patient, Carlos. Carlos had full body CRPS and suffered from gastroparesis. Carlos had no quality of life left, and would curl into a ball each time he ate the smallest bite of food, screaming pain ravaging his body. Carlos’s youngest son was nine months old. In those years, I was like so many other doctors who face their first CRPS patient. I was unfamiliar with the condition, and I felt daunted by the sheer magnitude of his suffering. Luckily for me, I had one tool that turned out to be exactly what Carlos needed: Vagus nerve stimulation. The Vagus nerve is…
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