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Abstract
Phantom pain is a common phenomenon among amputee patients. it is usually reported during the immediate postoperative period but can persist for up to 2 years. Sixty per cent of patients can still experience phantom pain 7 years postamputation and It has even been reported 30 years postamputation. Pain of any type, which persists for more than 6 months, is difficult to treat and is often unresponsive to analgesia,. including opioids. A large percentage of patients undergoing amputation have experienced chronic pain before their operation. Chronic pain is known to affect adversely patients' quality of life, and ability to function and achieve quality sleep. Nurses, therefore, need to address not only the physical aspects of amputation and phantom pain but also the psychological aspects.
Phantom pain is an extremely common experience for amputees, affecting between 8% and 100% of this patient group (Hill, 1999). Patients usually report phantom pain during the immediate postamputation period (Hill, 1999).
Phantom pain is well documented from a medical aspect. However, from a nursing perspective it is poorly and inconsistently researched, with findings varying greatly from one researcher to another (Smith et al, 1999). According to Hill (1999), this is because of disparities in both research approaches and pain assessment techniques; no uniformity exists to allow comparisons of results. In addition, many studies have derived their results from patients' medical records, noting the frequency of requests for treatment. This approach does not take account of patients who experience phantom pain but who do not seek medical intervention.
Discrepancies also exist with regard to the length of time phantom pain is experienced. Kreb et al (1984) found that 60% of amputees still experience phantom pain 7 years postamputation. Sherman et al (1984) and Hill (1993) indicate that some patients have reported phantom pain up to 30 years postamputation. Hill (1993) raises the possibility that this extreme length of time may be because the predominance of the subjects were war veterans who required amputation as a result of trauma. Donohue (1997) and Hill (1999) indicate that preamputation pain and trauma predisposes the patient to phantom pain although the pain may be of a different type.
There is some debate over whether there is any correlation between phantom pain and...