OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of phantom limb exercises on phantom limb pain. METHODS A total of 20 traumatic amputees participated in the study. Ten received phantom exercises and prosthetic training, and 10 were treated with routine prosthetic training and a general exercise programme. Intensity of pain was evaluated using a 10-cm visual analogue scale before therapy and after 4 week...

OBJECTIVE To provide a mechanism-based acute pain management strategy for early phantom limb pain following traumatic amputations and to collect first evidence of its acute and potentially preventative effects on the formation and maintenance of phantom limb pain. The combination of continuous brachial plexus analgesia and prolonged block of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors over 4 weeks ai...

This chapter is supported by Grant MT-12052 and a research scholarship from the Medical Research Council of Canada. After an amputation many patients awake from the anesthesia feeling certain that the operation has not been performed. They feel the lost limb so vividly that only when they reach out to touch it, or peer under the bed sheets to see it, do they realize it has been cut off. This ph...

OVERVIEW Phantom limb pain can be a devastating consequence of an amputation. It is often a chronic, disabling condition. This chapter reviews the etiology, pathophysiology, prevention, and treatment of phantom limb pain and discusses known risk factors for this condition. Even though many physicians have been frustrated by the inability to control phantom limb pain, promising new therapies are...

Using functional MRI, we investigated 14 upper limb amputees and seven healthy controls during the execution of hand and lip movements and imagined movements of the phantom limb or left hand. Only patients with phantom limb pain showed a shift of the lip representation into the deafferented primary motor and somatosensory hand areas during lip movements. Displacement of the lip representation i...

INTRODUCTION Phantom limb sensation and phantom limb pain is a very common issue after amputations. In recent years there has been accumulating data implicating 'mirror visual feedback' or 'mirror therapy' as helpful in the treatment of phantom limb sensation and phantom limb pain. CASE PRESENTATION We present the case of a 24-year-old Caucasian man, a left upper limb amputee, treated with mi...

Following limb amputation patients continue to feel the vivid presence of a phantom limb. A majority of patients also experience pain in the phantom and sometimes (as in our case DS) the pain is severe. Remarkably we find that optically 'resurrecting' the phantom with a mirror and using a lens to make the phantom appear to shrink caused the pain to 'shrink' as well.

PURPOSE This paper describes the design and implementation of a case study based investigation using immersive virtual reality as a treatment for phantom limb pain. METHOD Three participants who experienced phantom limb pain (two with an upper-limb amputation, and one with a lower-limb amputation) took part in between 2 and 5 immersive virtual reality (IVR) sessions over a 3-week period. The ...