Phantom Limb Syndrome Analysis Video
Phantom Limb Syndrome Analysis
It was only a couple of weeks after Christian Bagge came home from the war in Iraq that the torment began. His feet, however, were not there. It was when the Texas hospital began to wean Bagge off narcotics that the mysterious pain began. As reported in the British Journal of Anaesthesia, almost all amputees feel at least some sensations in the missing limb.
At first, the phantom limb feels intact, even movable. While a few lucky patients merely feel mild tingling or sensations of heat or cold, 60 to 80 percent of amputees suffer actual pain. Phantom limb pain sometimes mimics the pain that afflicted the limb before it was amputated.
Pain Is Still Such A Big Challenge
In other cases, it creates new agony unlike anything a person has ever felt before. Some patients with the condition even feel as if the missing limb has been twisted or distorted into impossible positions. James Roper, M. Phantom limb pain usually shows up within days of the amputation. However, some people first feel the pain years or even decades after losing a limb.
How is the diagnosis made?
But progress has been made. Not long ago, people with phantom limb pain were often told that they were either imagining things or going crazy. As explained by the American Pain Foundation, the brain has a hard time fathoming the loss of a limb, so it tries to re-create the limb using the nerve signals as a guide.
For reasons that nobody understands, the brain often translates those signals into pain. At this time, there is no single treatment for phantom limb pain.]
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