Phantom Pain & Spinal Cord Injury

[RENARDWC at ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu]

One day Dan Pop asked:

DP> I must be missing something. How could the reflected image of the AK
    limb help with the phantom pain in the BK limb? Not to mention that
    neither limb can be "moved and exercised", since the patient is also
    paraplegic.

My curiosity went back even further and I assumed I was missing
something, partially due to my ignorance of SCI. It begs the question:
Where or how does a para experience phantom pain from amputation in an
area in which there is ipso facto lack of any sensation? Or do I miss
something about SCI and lack of sensation. Does a person with SCI at
that level experience sensation? I had thought not. To experience no
real (traumatic, let's say) pain post-amputation in the remnant limb
(assume since no sensation below T-4) but to experience phantom is what
captured my attention.

But the original poster (the prosthetist) is subscribed to this list so
possibly he can offer us some additional insight from responses other
than Victoria Miller's.


Wayne Renardson