Phantom sensation and phantom pain among amputees at the national centre for prosthetics and orthotics in Khartoum

ABSTRACT

Although amputations and prosthetic rehabilitation at the National Centre for Prosthetics and Orthotics [NACPO] were studied before, phantom pain and phantom sensation which affect rehabilitation and prosthetic use were not. The aim of this paper is to report on phantom sensation and pain among amputees presenting to NACPO. Amputees presenting to NACPO between February 1998 and February 1999 for prosthetic fitting were included in the study. The occurrence of phantom pain and phantom sensation and their relation to sex, age, cause and level of amputation and prosthetic rehabilitation were studied. There were 256 amputees, 209 males [81.6%] and 47 females [18.4%], [MF= 4.41]. Their ages ranged between two and 79 years. The overall occurrence of phantom pain and phantom sensation were 27.7% and 55.1% respectively. Males and females had almost the same occurrence. About 9% of amputees below 15 years of age had phantom pain compared to 34.6% for those who were above 40. Occurrence of phantom pain among Mycetoma amputees was less than those of land mine, 22.2% and 36.4% respectively which could be due to that mycetoma is a painless pathology. More than 25% of transtibial and transfemoral amputees had phantom pain, only 9.1% of Symes amputations experienced pain. Phantom pain occurred in 22.5% of amputees who had prosthesis within the first 6 month after amputation while it occurred in 33.4% of amputees who received the prosthesis after more than three years. Occurrence of phantom pain among amputees is affected by age, cause and, level of the amputation and time elapse between amputation and prosthetic fitting