Erythromelalgia is a uncommon distressing disorder that is challenging to treat and generally impacts the feet and the hands. It is described through the symptoms of redness, warmness and burning pain. The episodes from this disorder are periodic and range from a few minutes to days. Attacks will usually commence with a mild itchiness, however after that moves on to intense pain and a burning discomfort. The feet or hands will become hotter, sensitive as well as swollen in addition to look a reddish hue. The attacks are quite debilitating and might have a major effect on the person by having an affect on the standard of life and the capability to perform many of the typical activities of day to day life.
There are two types of erythromelalgia. One is the primary kind that is likely to affect younger individuals and it is in all probability as a result of hereditary genetic trait that will make nerve fibers more active. The secondary variety usually have an impact on older persons and is resulting from an underpinning condition which include all forms of diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, several blood disorders or as a adverse affect to particular drug treatments. There are a variety of disorders which are similar and physicians will likely need to differentiate it from them as part of the investigation. These include problems like persistent pain problems, chilblains and also burning feet symptoms.
Treating erythromelalgia is challenging as there is simply no one therapy that seems to help every person along with the reaction to medication is really varied among individuals. The initial method is always to prevent circumstances that trigger an episode for example a hot bath, environmental triggers or certain foods. A lot of people with it do find help by cooling by using an air conditioner along with cooling skin gels. Many do turn to immersion of the limb into cool water however, this isn't advisable as it can result in maceration of the skin and maybe chilblains plus they might have a secondary bacterial infection.
For the second form of erythromelalgia, management is usually aimed at treatments for the underlying condition, and this is often extremely helpful. With the primary variety of erythromelalgia the management of the pain sensation can often be a great deal more difficult with the response to several medications being different between individuals. Often anti-inflammatory drugs are tried out, but they are usually not helpful. Medication that obstruct the channels in the nerve cells that will make the nerve impulses over active will often be tested out and these do tend to assist some. The anticonvulsant drug treatments for example gabapentin might help quite a few. There are some topical ointment medicines that quite a few find helpful such as capsaicin. With the most severe circumstances sympathetic nerve blocks or surgery on the back nerves that will involve surgery on the lower back could possibly be undertaken. Nonetheless, the results of these are varying. As the discomfort is severe and the condition is hard to manage and has such an affect on the everyday life of those that have got erythromelalgia it's a good idea that all those with erythromelalgia have a consultation with a pain management expert and clinical psychologists to help them cope with the symptoms and learn the techniques which are useful for coping with it.