Phantom Limb Pain

Excerpt

In the United States (U.S.), 30,000 to 40,000 amputations are performed each year. Amputations can occur for many reasons including severe trauma, tumors, vascular disease, and infection. Pain after amputation of a limb is a common symptom and is separated into two types of pain including residual limb pain (RLP) and phantom limb pain (PLP). PLP is clinically defined as the perception of pain or discomfort in a limb that no longer exists. Although PLP most commonly presents as pathological sequelae in amputee patients, the underlying pathophysiology remains poorly understood. Furthermore, PLP can present along a wide clinical spectrum and varying severity of symptoms. The condition should be differentiated from other related but separate clinical conditions, including RLP. This latter condition, formerly known as "stump pain", is pain that originates from the actual site of the amputated limb. It is most common in the early post-amputation period and tends to resolve with wound healing. Unlike PLP, RLP is often a manifestation of an underlying source, such as nerve entrapment, neuroma formation, surgical trauma, ischemia, skin breakdown, or infection. Of note, more than half of people with PLP also have RLP. It is important to know the difference between the two because the causes and treatments for each differ, but also be aware that both of these elements can coexist at the same time.

PLP and RLP represent an important challenge in medicine, in terms of epidemiology and therapeutic difficulties. Ninety-five percent of patients, indeed, report experiencing some amputation-related pain, with 79.9% reporting phantom pain and 67.7% reporting RLP. Again, these clinical manifestations can significantly worsen the health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) and in some cases are very difficult to manage.