In humans, limb amputation or brachial plexus avulsion (BPA) often results in phantom pain sensation. Actively observing movements made by a substitute of the injured limb can reduce phantom pain, Proc. R. Soc. London B Biol. Sci. 263, 377-386). The neural basis of phantom limb sensation and its amelioration remains unclear. Here, we studied the effects of visuomotor training on motor cortex (M...

OBJECTIVE To provide a better understanding of the prevalence, correlates and quality of phantom sensations and phantom pain in child and adolescent amputees. DESIGN Retrospective survey study. SETTING Recruitment through the War Amputations of Canada. PARTICIPANTS Sixty child and adolescent amputees aged 8-18 years who were missing a limb due to a congenital limb deficiency (n = 27) or s...

Phantom pain is experienced by 60% to 80% of patients following limb amputation but is only severe in about 5% to 10% of cases. The mechanisms underlying pain in amputees are not fully understood, but factors in both the peripheral and central nervous system play a role. Treatment of phantom pain is not successful; a recent study on prevention of phantom pain showed negative results. The future...

Phantom limb pain is very common after limb amputation and is often difficult to treat. The motor cortex stimulation is a valid treatment for deafferentation pain that does not respond to conventional pain treatment, with relief for 50% to 70% of patients. This treatment is invasive as it uses implanted epidural electrodes. Cortical stimulation can be performed noninvasively by repetitive trans...

The extent to which viewing a 'virtual' limb, the mirror image of an intact limb, modifies the experience of a phantom limb, was investigated in 80 lower limb amputees before, during and after repeated attempts to simultaneously move both intact and phantom legs. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of two conditions, a control condition in which they only viewed the movements of their intact...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this case series was to determine if severe phantom limb pain could be reduced with oral methadone. DESIGN Four cases of phantom limb pain refractory to multiple treatment modalities were treated with oral methadone. SETTING Pain clinic at a major university medical center. PATIENTS Four patients with severe, intractable phantom limb pain. INTERVENTION Oral me...

The aim of this study was to investigate whether a special prosthetic training in phantom limb pain patients aimed at increasing the functional use of the prosthesis leads to neural morphological plasticity of brain structures and a reduction in phantom limb pain. For chronic pain disorders, it was shown that morphological alterations due to pain might become at least partially reversed by pain...

phantom-limb pain is highly prevalent after limb amputation but remains an extremely challenging pain condition to treat1,2. the treatment must be multimodal and mechanism-based because the underlying pathological changes occur in both the peripheral and the central nervous system after amputation1,2. We report a patient who had suffered from intractable phantom-limb pain for years, successfull...

The vast amount of research over the past decades has significantly added to our knowledge of phantom limb pain. Multiple factors including site of amputation or presence of preamputation pain have been found to have a positive correlation with the development of phantom limb pain. The paradigms of proposed mechanisms have shifted over the past years from the psychogenic theory to peripheral an...

Despite being different conditions, complex regional pain syndrome type 1, phantom limb pain and stroke share some potentially important similarities. This report examines experimental and clinical findings from each patient population. It identifies common aspects of symptomatic presentation, sensory phenomena and patterns of cortical reorganization. Based on these common findings, we argue th...