Neuropathic pain other than CRPS in children and adolescents: incidence, referral, clinical characteristics, management, and clinical outcomes

Summary Background and Objectives Chronic pain in children and adolescents is common, but proportion of neuropathic pain (NP), a heterogeneous group of diseases with major impact on health‐related quality of life, significant economic burden, and limited treatment options, is unclear. Many studies have focused only on complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). Our aim was to examine the incidence, clinical features, management, and outcome of non‐CRPS NP in patients referred to a chronic pediatric pain clinic (CPPC) at a tertiary‐care hospital. Methods Retrospective analyses of the patient's files with non‐CRPS NP from 2008 until 2012. Results Twenty patients (9.9–22.0 years; 10.7% of new referrals) were treated with non‐CRPS NP (postoperative 8/20, trauma‐related 5/20, disease‐related 7/20). The number of consultations performed and the number of medications used before CPPC were significantly higher than in CPPC (Z = 0.75, P = 0.005; Z = 1.68, P = 0.003; respectively, Wilcoxon test). The number of diagnostic procedures was not statistically significant. Invasive treatments were used in 50% of patients. Full/partial recovery was accomplished in 95%. anova with repeated measures yielded a highly significant difference between the initial and final visual analog scale (VAS) scores (8.2 ± 1.3; 1.19 ± 2.01, respectively; P