Erythromelalgia is a rare debilitating disorder that is challenging to manage and typically impacts your feet and hands. This condition is characterized by the triad of redness, warmness along with burning pain. The attacks of this problem are recurrent and range from minutes to several days. Attacks will often start out with a simple itching, however after that progress to extreme pain and the burning pain. The feet or hand will end up hotter, sensitive and also bloated along with look a red hue. The attacks are certainly disabling and may have a considerable impact on the individual by having an impact on the quality of living as well as the capability to carry out many of the normal functions of day to day life.

There's two categories of erythromelalgia. One is the primary kind which has a tendency to have an effect on younger individuals and is more than likely caused by a hereditary genetic mutation which make nerves more excitable. The alternative type has a tendency to affect older individuals and is resulting from an underpinning condition including diabetes, gout, some blood problems as well as a adverse affect to certain drugs. There are a number of disorders that resemble erythromelalgia and physicians will likely need to differentiate it from them as part of the analysis. Included in this are disorders like chronic pain syndromes, chilblains along with burning feet disorder.

Treating erythromelalgia is complicated as there is hardly any one therapy that appears to help everyone and the reaction to treatment methods are quite diverse between individuals. The primary strategy is to avoid situations which trigger an attack for instance a hot bath, environmental triggers or certain foods. Lots of people with erythromelalgia will find relief from cooling down with the aid of an air conditioner and cooling gels. Many do resort to immersion of the arm or leg in cold water however this isn't recommended as this can lead to maceration in the skin and even chilblains plus they may very well develop a secondary infection.

For the secondary kind of erythromelalgia, management is generally aimed towards treatments for the underpinning medical problem, and this is often very helpful. For the primary type of erythromelalgia the treating of the pain sensation is usually a great deal more challenging with the response to various medicines being different between people. Often anti-inflammatory medicines are tried, however they are often unhelpful. Medicine which inhibit the channels within the nerve cells that make the nerve impulses over active are often tested out and these do often help some people. The anticonvulsant medicines for example gabapentin might help some. There are some topical drugs that some find effective for example capsaicin. In the most extreme cases sympathetic nerve blocks or surgery on the back nerves that does involve surgery on the back can be performed. However, the results of these are mixed. Because the pain is extreme and the problem is difficult to manage and has such an affect on the everyday life of those that have erythromelalgia experts recommend that all individuals with it get a appointment with a pain management consultant and clinical psychologists to help them handle the pain and discover the techniques which can be useful for dealing with the pain.