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After a person has an arm or leg amputated, they may still be able to feel the "presence" of the missing limb. An amputee may experience a variety of sensations in the missing body part, such as sharp or stabbing pain, pain, cramps, or burning. This sensation is known as phantom pain, and it affects 70-90% of amputees.
What is phantom pain?
Phantom pain is continuous pain that is felt by a person after amputation, even though that part of the body is no longer there. He felt that the missing limb was still there, but it had shrunk to a smaller size. This "occult" pain occurs most often in people who have had an arm or leg amputation. But phantom pain can also occur in other parts of the body that are commonly amputated, such as the breasts, penis, eyes, and even the tongue.
The onset of this pain most often occurs immediately after surgery. The pain can feel like many things, such as burning, sprains, itching, or pressure. The sensation felt by the body part that was lost before the amputation may be felt again. The length of time the pain can vary from person to person.
Phantom pain can last for only seconds, seconds, minutes, hours, even days. For most people, phantom pain goes away within the first six months after amputation, but many continue to experience this complaint for years.
What causes phantom pain after amputation?
Unlike pain that is caused by direct trauma to a limb, phantom pain is thought to be caused by a jumbled up of sending pain signals from the brain or spinal cord. Even though the limb is gone, the nerve endings at the location of the amputation end continue to send pain signals to the brain that make the brain think the limb is still there. Sometimes, the brain's memory of pain is maintained and interpreted as real pain, even though the signal comes from the injured nerve.
Scientists suspect that the root cause of this mysterious phenomenon begins in a part of the brain called the somatosensory cortex. The somatosensory cortex is an area of the brain that stores somatotopic map data, the center for storing all kinds of information about the part of the body that is responsible for our sense of touch.
After the amputation, the brain undergoes a somatotopic map adjustment due to a missing limb. The brain's perception of these limbs will not disappear and can be brought back to the surface. This is done by the brain trying to respond to reconnect neural circuits that no longer receive stimulation from the amputated part of the body. This brain response is thought to generate "ghostly" stimuli, which the body perceives as real pain.
As with other types of pain, you may find that certain activities or conditions trigger phantom pain. Some of these triggers may include:
- Touch
- Urinating or defecating
- Sex
- Angina
- Smoke
- Change in air pressure
- White smoke
- Shingles
- Exposure to cold air
How do you deal with phantom pain?
People are often reluctant to tell anyone that they are experiencing phantom pain, for fear of being considered "crazy". But it's important to remember that even when parts of her body are gone, the pain is real. You need to report your complaint immediately after the first time you experience pain so that treatment can be started immediately.
For phantom pain pain management, doctors usually prescribe drugs that specifically work to interfere with pain signals in the brain or spinal cord, as well as use certain non-drug therapies such as acupuncture or hypnosis, which also work to affect your brain's understanding of these signals.
There are many different categories of drugs that can lower your pain, including:
- Acetaminophen and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
- Opioid
- Antidepressants
- Anticonvulsants
- Beta-blockers
- Muscle relaxants
Installation of prosthesis (functional prosthesis) is also commonly recommended as a way of dealing with this artificial pain, so that the muscles in the amputated body can recover and reduce pain.
