Dr Scott Hompland, a pain specialist practicing in Denver and Ft. Collins, was our guest speaker at our May meeting. He talked to us about phantom sensation and pain, and also about pain in our residual limbs. Here is a part of what he had to say.

Post amputation pain syndrome (phantom sensation and pain) is experienced to some degree or other by nearly all amputees. Phantom sensation has been experience in any and all parts of the body after an amputation. The sensation can be anything from the feeling that the missing limb is still there, to an itch, to pain requiring medical intervention.

Phantom pain was first taken seriously after civil war when so many patients reported similar experiences to so many doctors that they couldn’t all be wrong. Today medical science is getting closer and closer to understanding the physiology of phantom sensation and new treatments are being developed all the time.

Pain messages go from the nerve up through the spinal cord and then through the thalamus, where they pick up their emotional components; and finally to the cerebral cortex in the brain.

How you treat the nerve during amputation seems to have a lot to do with phantom sensation after the amputation. When a nerve is severed it sends millions of pain messages to the brain.

Nerves are designed to repair themselves when cut. They reach out looking for the other end and try to repair themselves. When something is amputated the nerve endings form a bubble at the end like an exposed electrical wire with no insulation on the end. This area can be very sensitive.

Feel and pain messages go from each part of our bodies to specific parts of the brain. When something (like a leg) is amputated, that part of the brain has nothing to do any more. However, it does not like to remain idle and so looks for something to do. Often it will attach itself to another part of the body. So when you touch a certain part of your face, you might feel sensation in your phantom limb, for example.