• Byeong-Cheol Lee, Dae-Seok Oh, Hyun-Seong Lee, Se-Hun Kim, Jae-Hong Park, Ki-Hwa Lee, Hyo-Joong Kim, Ji-Hyun Yang, and Sang-Eun Lee.
• Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Haeundae Paik Hospital of Inje University, 875 Haeundae-ro, Haeundae-gu, Busan 48108, Korea.
• Medicina (Kaunas). 2021 May 12; 57 (5).

IntroductionLeriche syndrome is an aortoiliac occlusive disease caused by atherosclerotic occlusion. We report a case of Leriche syndrome with a fracture that was suspected as complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), as the post-traumatic pain gradually worsened in the form of excruciating neuropathic pain.Case ReportA 52-year-old woman with a history of hypertension was referred to the Department of Pain Medicine from a local orthopedic clinic because of suspected CRPS for excruciating neuropathic pain for one month. She complained of gait dysfunction and severe pain in the right foot following an incident of trauma with the right first toe. The average pain intensity assessed using the visual analog scale (VAS) was 90 (0: no pain, 100: the worst pain imaginable), and the neuropathic pain was evident as a score of 6/10 on Douleur neuropathique 4. Allodynia, hyperalgesia, blue discoloration of the skin, asymmetric temperature change (1.38 °C), and edematous soft tissue changes were observed. Ultrasonography showed a chip fracture in the first distal phalanx of the right first toe. The diagnosis was most probably CRPS type I according to the Budapest research criteria for CRPS. However, multiple pain management techniques were insufficient in controlling the symptoms. A month and a half later, an ankle-brachial index score of less than 0.4 suggested severe peripheral artery disease. Computed tomography angiography showed total occlusion between the infrarenal abdominal aorta and the bilateral common iliac arteries. Therefore, she underwent aortic-bifemoral bypass surgery with a diagnosis of Leriche syndrome. Three months after the surgery, the average pain intensity was graded as 10 on the VAS (0-100), the color of the skin of the right first toe improved and no gait dysfunction was observed.ConclusionA chip fracture in a region with insufficient blood flow could manifest as excruciating neuropathic pain in Leriche syndrome.

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