Phantom Limb Pain

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Recommended: Phantom limb pain case study

I have been interested in working with patients that are amputees for some time. I was interested to find out if mirror therapy actually worked for those patients that have phantom limb pain. The treatment seems to be very simple and from the few videos I had seen before my research, it was very effective. According to several different websites, patients that have had an amputation the likelihood of them having phantom limb pain is between 50% and 80% of all amputees. This is a huge number and if mirror therapy is actually effective it could help reduce this debilitating pain in hundreds if not thousands of patients.

The first article I reviewed was published in 2006. It was a randomized control trial. Eighty patients were included in the study, forty-one in the experimental group and thirty-nine in the control group. Patients that had reported phantom limb pain that were patients of one of six local facilities were invited to join this study. There was no inclusion or exclusion data for this study. The breakdown of the participants was fairly equal except for the reason for having an amputation. The study did also include studies on phantom limb movement and phantom limb sensation. I focused on the phantom limb pain (PLP) and its results. According to their findings patients that reported PLP before this study stated their pain was reduced. This study seemed to be more concerned with phantom limb awareness and phantom limb movement. There was not a baseline comparison and no one was blinded to the study or results. Patients were also advised that the treatment should not induce or cause any additional pain or cause any side effects. With that information given to the patients it also could have i...

... middle of paper ...

...s amazingly simple therapy.

Works Cited

Ramachandran VS, Rogers-Ramachandran D. Synaestheia in phantom limbs incduced with mirrors. Proc Biol Sci. 1996; 263:377-386

Brodie EE, Whyte A, Niven CA. Analgeisa through the looking-glass? A randomized case trial investigating the effect of viewing a ‘virtual’ limb upon phantom limb pain, senation and movement. Eur J Pain. 2007;11:428-436

Chan BL, Witt R, Charrow AP, Magee A, Howard R, Pasquina PF, et al. Mirror therapy for phantom limb pain. N Engl J Med 2007;357:2206-2007

MacLachlan M. McDonald D, Waloch J. Mirror treatment of lower limb phantom pain: a case study. Disabil Rehabil. 2004; 26: 901-904

Darnal BD, Lin H. Home-based self-delivered mirror therapy for phantom pain: a pilot study. J Rehabil Med. 2012; 44:254-260

Kim SY, Kim YY. Mirror therapy for phantom limb pain. Korean J Pain. 2012; 25:272-274

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