Background: Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a painful condition that most often affects one limb with various other symptoms such as changes in skin color and nail growth, muscle atrophy, and stiffness of affected joints. CRPS patients suffer from intractable pain as well as severe functional impairment, which deteriorate the quality of life. Several therapeutic modalities such as physical therapy, rehabilitation and medications have been reported to be effective for CRPS. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is also listed as a choice of treatment for refractory CRPS. It has been shown that SCS provides a tingling sensation in the painful area leading to pain relief, but there is a lack of enough information regarding the effect of SCS on functional improvement. 
Method: we report two cases of CRPS, whose functional impairment could be satisfactorily improved by SCS. 
Result: Case 1: A 44-year-old man suffered from CRPS at the right upper limb for two years. He could only slightly move his right hand due to stiffness of the joints. After SCS implantation at the cervical cord, the movement has improved and his right grip strength has significantly increased. Case 2: A 62-year-old woman developed CRPS at the left lower limb two years ago. She had marked disturbance on walking due to bone demineralization and muscle atrophy. After SCS implantation at the thoracic cord, her lower limb function has significantly improved until she could walk. 
Conclusions: SCS trials would have a possibility to ameliorate the motor dysfunction of CRPS.

SPINAL CORD STIMULATION IMPROVED MOTOR DYSFUNCTION IN TWO PATIENTS WITH COMPLEX REGIONAL PAIN SYNDROME