Phantom Limb Pain Summary

“Losing a leg was like having to learn how to suck in air through the pores of my skin. Somehow I survived, but each breath was painful” (Draanen 157). Jessica, from Wendelin Van Draanen’s The Running Dream, loved to run. Which is why when she lost her leg she described it as stated above, like learning how to take in air through her skin. Her leg was a part of her, something she loved to use, and when it was gone she felt off balance, both metaphorically and actually. I felt this way when someone very close to me died. His name was Zackary, or Zack for short, and he was my cat. When he died of a thickened heart wall and a thrombus collapse at the age of 1 and a half, I felt as if I had lost something vital to me. A body part that was necessary

The first article named “Phantom Limb Syndrome” has defined the phantom limb syndrome as the perception of the sensations on the amputated limb. In the article it was mentioned that the brain still receive messages from removed limb through the nerves. This article has also mentioned that the exact cause of the syndrome is unknown. In the article it was mentioned that “sensations are due to the brain’s attempt to reorganize sensory information following the amputation. The brain must essentially rewire itself to adjust to the changes in the body” (Scheinberg, 2015). The article points out that the adult are more likely to suffer from phantom limb syndrome than children. The article also mentioned that there are various risk factors which increase the risk of developing the phantom limb syndrome can be the pre-amputation pain, infection, damage on the spinal cord or nerves that supplied to the affected limb, blood clot on the amputated limb, etc.

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.

Cases of ‘phantom limbs’, ‘disappearing phantom limbs’ and ‘positional phantoms’ are a well-written about phenomena. Dr. Sacks describes how sensory messages can be sent to the phantom limbs, causing a neurological condition.

The author starts off by recalling his personal experiences with phantom limbs. A young boy had a phantom limb phenomenon. The term phantom limb was first used by Silas Weir Mitchell in 1872. Phantom limb seems to occur because of the images created by the images of the body and makes the person always believe that it is all there even after an amputation. The body is basically trying to make sense of the amputation. It is not actually caused by incorrect neural activity. It is actually more built from the part of the brain that creates the mental image of the body. Turns out on 90 percent of amputee actually have a phantom limb experience. Researchers have tried to treat phantom limb with the mirrors and Virtual Reality.

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,

When a person loses a limb, it is never a clean cut; whether it be the remnants of gore from the cut, the trauma of the loss, or the non-physical remnant of the limb itself, known as Phantom Limb Syndrome. Despite effecting 80% of all amputees, the sensation itself continues to mystify neuroscientists and is not yet fully understood. The most popularized type of phantom are the painful ones, seeing as it affects 50-80% of amputees regardless of whether their amputation was traumatic or done in a hospital for their health, but phantom limbs are not all painful and can come in many shapes, sizes, and types of sensations. (873)

Furthermore phantom limb pain is simply a sensation of pain. A patient experiences the pain in an affected extremity that no longer exists (McCance & Huether). Although nerve fibers have the capability to regenerate this is a time consuming process that does not always yield a fully functional nerve (Subedi & Grossberg, 2011).

There are many ways to treat Phantom limb pain, but the few that can possibly relieve pain for the patient. Those include Injection of pain killing medications, anesthetics or steroids into the stump which can then provide relief, brain stimulation can also provide relief depending on the individual and there’s nerve stimulation and if used properly can relieve pain because it interrupts or masks pain signals and prevents it from reaching your brain, but this can only provide temporary relieve just like most of these treatments. Depending on the individual these treatments can help relieve pain but each person is

I am interested in the study of phantom limbs because it is an interesting phenomena where someone can feel something that is not there. In the module 3 quiz and the reading for that quiz this topic was introduced to me and it intrigued my interest. It is also really intriguing that they sometimes feel pain related to their incidents before or during surgical and nonsurgical amputations(where it was removed by the incident or afterwards by a surgeon). I feel that it would be particularly interesting if someone's pain was directly connected to the last moments of that limb being attached where neurons were responding to what was going on. Another question that is on my mind about this topic is that what if the phantom limb experience is

One point I found interesting about this article was the number of patients that experience this sensation and how soon they can suffer from pain. According to Kim and Kim (2012) more than 50-85% of phantom limb pain develops after amputation and patients can acquire pain within 24 hours of the amputation. There are different types of medications and treatments than an amputee might have to test before they can discover one that helps minimize the

Phantom limb syndrome is an extraordinary condition that is caused by amputating a limb or being born without a limb (Flor, 2002); This condition affects approximately 80% to 90% of patients who have had a limb amputated (Flor, 2002). The first documented case of phantom limb syndrome was in the mid 16th century (Nikolajsen & Jensen, 2001). The description was given by a French military surgeon by the name of Ambroise Paré (1510–1590) when he noticed that some of his injured patients would express that they were experiencing extreme pain in their missing limb (Nikolajsen & Jensen, 2001). He studied and wrote down the characterizations of this post-amputation state and attempted to create different models to explain how the phantom pain was

Telescoping, or shortening, of the phantom limb occurred in more than one fifth of participants, and was shown to be disproportionally more likely in cases involving traumatic limb loss, cancer-related amputation, and brachial plexus avulsion, or the tearing of the nerves that join the arm and shoulder (Teixeira et al., 2015), occurring roughly forty percent of the time in each of these cases (Giummarra et al., 2010). The likelihood of experiencing telescoping of the phantom limb was much greater amongst upper limb amputees, with more than two thirds reporting such sensations, than amongst lower limb amputees, at roughly one in five (Giummarra et al., 2010). The study revealed no correlation between the time since amputation and the frequency of phantom limb sensation perceptions(Giummarra et al., 2010). Eighty percent of respondents reported a normal or habitual positioning of their phantom limb, compared to twelve percent reporting abnormal or impossible positioning, with the latter twelve percent being comprised of mostly traumatic amputees (Giummarra et al., 2010). A more proximal location of amputation was also shown to be more likely to result in abnormal positioning perception than was a more distal amputation location (Giummarra et al., 2010). About 15% of amputees reported that the more distal portion of their phantom limb seemed to be floating or

The phenomenon of phantom limb pain (PLP) in patients with amputations has always fascinated healthcare professionals. Although this condition is relatively easy to diagnose, the pathophysiology of PLP remains unclear. It is estimated that greater than 80% of patients with a partial or total loss of a limb develop phantom limb pain, which is a type of neuropathic pain that is perceived in the location of the amputated limb. 1 Studies have shown that up to 75% of patients develop pain within the first few days after amputation, however PLP can occur months or even years later. 2-4 It is primarily localized in the distal parts of the missing limb.5 Risk factors for PLP include gender (more common in women), presence of pre-amputation pain,

Phantom limb pain is a painful sensation experienced in a body part which is no longer part of the body, often due to amputation.(3) Individuals also reported that tingling as well as various types of pain have occurred, and these sensations may eventually disappear or may persist as cramping, shooting, burning or crushing