Phantom Limb Pain: What do we know so far?

Azeem Tariq Malik*

Received: October 30, 2017;   Published: November 06, 2017

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2017.01.000496

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Abstract

The term ‘phantom limb pain’ was first used by Silas Weir Mitchell, an active surgeon during the 19th century Civil War [1]. However, the concept of pain being perceived by the region of a body that is no longer present was in fact first described way before Silas’s time by Ambrose Pare [2] who served as a surgeon in the French military armada in the 16th century. To describe it simply, it refers to either the sensation of a limb still present at the site of an amputation or the presence of intense pain at site of the missing extremity. Often times, both sensations have been reported by amputees in literature. Despite recent literature reporting the incidence of this phenomenon in up to 70-80% of amputees [3], it still remains a poorly understood and difficult to manage condition. With statistics showing an ever increasing incidence of limb loss occurring in US [4], it becomes of utmost importance that surgeons, anesthesiologists and patients are well aware of this phenomenon prior to conducting amputations for affected extremities. Phantom Limb Pain can consist of a complex of three different entities that can either co-exist or be present separately [5].

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