The Efficacy of Vitamin C in the Prevention of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome After Distal Radius Fractures: A Synthesis.

The current recommendation is to use daily doses of vitamin C to prevent the occurrence of the complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) following a distal radius fracture. The study is a synthesis of the four primary studies that examine this issue. These studies have been previously examined in the meta-analysis literature. The incidence of CRPS is lower in patients treated with the vitamin C protocol compared with the control. The significance of the difference varies from P = .02 to P = .13. Our analysis points to the fact that the relative efficacy of vitamin C has decreased over the past 15 years (P < .001). In 2014, the incidence of CRPS in the vitamin C cohort is not statistically different from the incidence in the control group (P = .76). Vitamin C has lost its relative efficacy.