In our experience caring for amputee patients, the majority who come to us, 3 out of 5 amputee patients share that they have experienced intense pain after amputation , feeling as if they still had the limb present, feeling discomfort, even itching, in addition to having the despair for wanting to rub or scratch among other things.
This experience is known as PHANTOM PAIN , previously it was believed that this type of pain was psychological, however, based on current studies, it has been shown that this pain is completely real and its origin is found in the spinal cord and the brain.
In addition to phantom pain, there is also phantom limb syndrome. The latter is characterized by feeling that the limb is still complete and is generally painless.
Why does phantom pain develop ?
The most common factors for which phantom limb pain develops are:
- 1 – The patient who suffered intense pain before being amputated usually suffers from it later because the brain retains this sensation of pain in its memory.
- 2.- Some patients present pain in the stump after surgery, so residual pain usually occurs with characteristics of having this sensation in the entire extremity.
It is believed that 80 percent of amputees worldwide have experienced this type of pain. The period of time of this type of pain varies depending on each person, however, phantom pain can last seconds, minutes, hours and in Sometimes it can be felt for several days.
Is it possible to remove phantom pain ?
In general, phantom pain occurs during the first months, hence the pain and the frequency decreases, however there are some other cases where after several years some type of sensation continues to be experienced.
Treatment for phantom pain has a multifaceted approach, that is, there are specific medications to control pain in addition to being combined with physical therapy that can even be more effective than the medications themselves. However, pharmacological treatment does not have a satisfactory response in all cases, which is why at the prosthesis clinic in Puebla we perform different alternative therapies such as:
- Mirror Therapy for Phantom Limb Symptoms
Which consists of placing a side mirror on the patient, thus allowing him to see the reflection of the contralateral side to the amputation, this therapy has the purpose of activating the brain areas responsible for movement, due to the complex system of mirror neurons and their function to help learning.
- Stump massages.
It is done by applying various manual techniques on the soft tissues of the body (muscles, connective tissue) and joints.
- Placement of a prosthetic device.
Replacing the residual limb (stump) by placing a prosthesis either of the upper or lower limb depends on the level of amputation . When the brain sees the prosthesis, it identifies another part of the body, therefore, the phantom pain will slowly disappear.
At Mediprax Mexico we have more than 15 years adapting arm prostheses or leg prostheses to various patients, who with adequate rehabilitation have treated the symptoms of phantom limb and part of their success is the availability of the patient.