What Is Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, a Painful Condition Archana Puran Singh Has Developed on Her Hand

Archana

Puran Singh is battling Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, a painful condition following an injury last year. The 63-year-old actor had hurt her wrist during the shooting of the 2025 film Vicky Vidya Ka Wo Wala Video. Since then, apart from surgery, Archana also underwent physiotherapy sessions, but nothing has worked.

What is Complex Regional Pain Syndrome?

CRPS is a condition that causes pain, changes in skin colour, and other symptoms in a certain part of your body - usually in your extremities, which include your arm, leg, hand, or foot. The symptoms of CRPS can greatly impact the function of your affected limb, sleep, daily activities, and your mental health. According to experts, CRPS occurs as a result of dysfunction in your central or peripheral nervous system. Your central nervous system, which consists of your brain and spinal cord, relays information from your brain and spinal cord to your organs, arms, legs, fingers, and toes. The abnormal functioning results in an overreaction to pain signals that your nervous system can’t shut off. There are two subtypes of CRPS:

Type I

This pain occurs without nerve damage and mostly happens after an illness or injury that didn’t directly damage a nerve.

Type II

In this case, pain happens after known nerve damage.

What causes CRPS?

While experts are not sure what exactly causes CRPS, they think it is mostly due to an inflammatory or immune reaction in both your peripheral and central nervous systems. In more than 90 per cent of the cases, CRPS results from nerve trauma or injury to the affected limb that damages the thinnest sensory and autonomic nerve fibres. These small fibers transmit pain, itch, and temperature sensations. They also control the small blood vessels and the overall health of surrounding cells. The most common injury associated with developing CRPS is a fracture, especially in the wrist. A displaced or splintered bone or pressure from a tight cast can damage nerves. Other injuries include:

Surgery

A surgical incision, stitches, or scarring can cause nerve injury.

Sprains

When connective tissues are damaged, it can result in excessive movement of a joint, which over-stretches nearby nerves.

Burns

These are all noticeable signs of injuries that may also have damaged underlying nerves. CRPS can also develop without an obvious injury or due to periods of prolonged immobilization. Certain factors that may increase your risk of developing CRPS include:

• Poor nerve health with conditions like diabetes
• Immune system issues that cause inflammation
• Genetics that affect your ability to recover from an injury

Signs and symptoms of CRPS

According to doctors, the severity of symptoms varies from person to person. While they usually start within four to six weeks after an injury, fracture, or surgery, they can also develop without a known cause. The most common and prominent symptom of CRPS is pain, and apart from that, a few others are:

• Increased sensitivity to painful stimuli, where even a pinch may feel more painful than usual
• Feeling pain from stimuli that are usually not painful, like touching your skin
• Numbness
• Skin swelling that keeps coming and going
• Decreased function in your affected limb, which leads to stiffness
• Changes in skin temperature may cause it to feel warmer or cooler compared to the opposite one
• Changes in skin colour may appear blotchy, pale, purple/bruised, or red
• Changes in skin texture, which becomes shiny and thin or excessively sweaty