Essay On Phantom Limb Pain

The perception of pain and the emotions that control intensity differ in individuals. Since feeling pain is somewhat adaptive, when one experiences it, he or she becomes aware of an injury and tries to remove oneself from the source that caused the injury. For this reason, pain is considered neuropathic or inflammatory in nature. Thus, when pain is the outcome from the damage caused to the neurons of the peripheral and central nervous system, then that pain is neuropathic. However, if the pain signals any kind of tissue damage, then the pain is inflammatory in nature. Due to various types of pain, the interpretation of pain by neurons and the source of that pain

Gertler clarifies that pain refers to the sensation and not the common cause, which is C-fibers firing in a specific area with tissue damage. (109) She asserts that pain is not essentially connected to tissue damage of a particular location, indicating to me inadequate understanding of the concept. If one pinches one's arm, though the sensation of pain may not be necessarily located in the arm, I contend that the pain felt is relevantly connected to the location pinched. Gertler provides the alleviating effect of painkillers as an example of a non-essential feature of pain. (117) Location is unlike this property, however, and is essential in conceptualizing pain. For instance, even an amputee, who had a leg removed and experiences a phantom leg-pain, is unable to describe the sensation they feel without making reference to a specific body part. Whether or not the pain is actually “located” anywhere is irrelevant, it matters only that the pain is conceptualized as having a location. Our understanding of pain relies fundamentally on where the pain is thought to be “located.” The fact that it is impossible to conceive of pain without reference to the “location” of the sensation proves that location is an essential feature of

The surgery being performed on your son consists of a few different procedures. First, what we did was to identify the muscles, blood vessels and nerves in both the arm and the stump. Then Dr. Ramos will trim the wound, and insert the supporting plate. This is what is holding your son’s arm in place, and also made reattachment possible. Before we did this, he had to trim the bone, which will make the right arm one inch shorter then the left arm. With the supporting plate in place, we will then be able to reattach everything else. The only bad news is that unfortunately Jim will never regain entire use of his right arm. Although all the vessels and muscles are connected properly the nervous system is too damaged to send messages to the brain. Because of this, recovering movement capabilities will be a slow process. Although with practice and physical therapy, Jim will slowly regain function and strength.

Over the years scientists have noted many complaints of a strange form of pain called phantom limb pain. This pain is strange because it is located in an appendage that no longer exists. By many of the amputees the pain is described as totally unbearable. Phantom limb pain has even driven some victims crazy. For the amputee population this is a very real problem that definitely needs to be solved.

Kathy, a 20-year-old woman, awakens one morning to a tingling, numb sensation covering both of her feet. This has happened to her a number of times throughout the year. In the past, when experiencing this sensation, within a couple of days to a week the numbness would subside, and so she is not too concerned. About a week later, she

The cause of pain can be puzzling and is not always related to specific pathology (Croft et al.,

The phantom limb pain the woman is experiencing is described as a painful condition of the amputated limb after the stump has completely healed. It is a chronic pain that occurs in more than 80% of amputees especially those who suffered pain in the limb before the amputation. Theories suggest that phantom limb pain results from redevelopment or hyperactivity of cut peripheral nerves, scar tissue or neuroma formation in the cut peripheral nerves, spinal cord deafferentation, and alterations in the thalamus and cortex. More so, the CNS integration, which involves reorganization and plastic modifications of the somatosensory cortex, effects the receptors in perceiving the pain of the amputated limb despite of the limb itself being absent. In addition,

The injuries he suffered were overwhelming, and so sudden that at first, he didn't know anything was wrong. Only when he tried to put weight on his leg did he realize the extent of the damage. He jokes about it today. "I found that I didn't have a leg to stand on," he chuckles. Most of the flesh on his leg was ripped away, leaving his foot attached only by the tendons in the back of his calf. Bones were exposed and the bleeding was profuse. He also suffered head and internal injuries.

Phantom Limb Pain (PLP) is a serious condition that occurs when a person who has lost a part of their body though amputation, trauma (brachial plexus), or loss of nervous connections in an appendage, perceives that the limb is still there and experiences sensations coming from this area. It was first described in 1866 by S. Weir Mitchell, an American neurologist, through a short story published in Atlantic Monthly. While Mitchell may then have wondered if this was specific to wounded Civil War soldiers, it has since been established as quite common (1). Over 70% of amputees report phantom limb pain for years after amputation (2). Several theories have been proposed regarding PLP, although there is still much to be

The earliest hypothesis regarding the cause of phantom limbs and pain was that of neuromas. These were thought to be nodules comprised of remaining nerves located at the end of the stump. These neuromas presumably continued to generate impulses that traveled up the spinal cord to portions of the thalamus and somatosensory domains of the cortex. As a result, treatment involved cutting the nerves just above the neuroma in an attempt to interrupt signaling at each somatosensory level (5). This and other related theories were deemed unsatisfactory because of the fact the phantom pain always returned, indicating that there was a more complex reason.

Prosthetic limbs have been around for centuries, but what is one thing they all have in common? They have all been a nuisance. In recent years technology of the modern day Prosthesis has ventured to new heights, but they have not perfected an artificial limb yet. With the amount of people in need of prosthetic limbs, the demand for a perfect prosthesis is tremendous. The perfect prosthesis shouldn’t feel or even look like an artificial limb. Prosthetics should go unnoticed throughout the rest of the amputee’s life.

Sacks discussed the ideas behind the phantom limb and how they affected many peoples live. The most interesting story was about a sailor that accidentally cut off his index finger. For forty years he thought he would poke himself in the eye whenever he moved his hand to his face. One day he lost the feeling in his entire hand including his phantom finger and his problem was cured (Sacks 66-67). Up to 70 percent of amputees confirmed that they still feel or still thought a missing limb was there. They often feel that they can reach out and grab something. Some won't sleep in a certain way because they feel the missing limb between them and the mattress. The sensations felt stem from the activity of the sensory axons

An extensive matrix of neurons in the brain gives us the sense of our own bodies and body parts. Pain results when this matrix produces an abnormal pattern of activity, as a result of memories, emotions, expectations or signals from various brain centres and not just from signals from peripheral nerves. Because of the lack of sensory stimulation or a person’s efforts to move a nonexistent limb, abnormal patterns may arise, resulting in phantom pain.

The International Association for the Study of Pain defined pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (Unk, 2007). Pain being described such as this allows us to see that pain is a perception, not unlike seeing or hearing. Pain is the most common reason that people seek medical attention but pain is very hard to define because it is subjective. Pain perception is the process by which a painful stimulus is relayed from the site of stimulation to the central nervous system (Freudenrich, 2008). In order to determine if pain is a perception of the mind or if it is biological we must first understand how the process of pain works.

The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (1979). Pain is actually the culprit behind warranting a visit to a physician office for many people (Besson, 1999). Notoriously unpleasant, pain could also pose a threat as both a psychological and economic burden (Phillips, 2006). Sometimes pain does happen without any damage of tissue or any likely diseased state. The reasons for such pain are poorly understood and the term used to describe such type of pain is “psychogenic pain”. Also, the loss of productivity and daily activity due to pain is also significant. Pain engulfs a trillion dollars of GDP for lost work time and disability payments (Melnikova, 2010). Untreated pain not only impacts a person suffering from pain but also impacts their whole family. A person’s quality of life is negatively impacted by pain and it diminishes their ability to concentrate, work, exercise, socialize, perform daily routines, and sleep. All of these negative impacts ultimately lead to much more severe behavioral effects such as depression, aggression, mood alterations, isolation, and loss of self-esteem, which pose a great threat to human society.