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Has anyone ever worked on a patient with phantom limb syndrome?

I have a prospective client that has PL syndrome and the only research I can find on the Internet is to massage the remaining appendage to help provide relief. Does anyone have experience with a PLS patient?

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Permalink Reply by Jason Erickson on October 28, 2010 at 11:31pm

That's one old-fashioned approach, but don't expect it to do much. If the missing limb is an arm, you will have much more success by massaging this client's face, because the sensory motor cortex for the face tends to "invade" the area previously dedicated to the missing arm, so sensory input from the face may often be experienced as being in the missing limb. While this approach *may* provide some relief, it is the client's sensory motor cortex that needs to be treated by helping it learn to remap it's image of the body so the input it receives is interpreted correctly.

You need to refer this client to a PT or other licensed professional who does mirror box therapy (developed by V S Ramachandran). They can teach the client how to work through the process and retrain their brain to eliminate the phantom limb pain and perceptions.

Here's a few links to vids on basic mirror box concepts. Do NOT try doing this yourself; it's outside our scope of practice as bodyworkers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMBA15Hu35M - David Butler, another one of the great minds behind this kind of work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0QiGj9eOOw - mirror box for phantom limb pain, #1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK2M5GOvpOY&feature=related - #2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCpqx3uGaHw&feature=related - #3

There are MANY more, and I recommend giving this info to your client. It is the best service you can provide.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Erickson on October 28, 2010 at 11:32pm

Another great resource for information on this is the SomaSimple.com forum. There are a number of folks who have knowledge of PLS and how to treat it there.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Lutz on October 29, 2010 at 7:16am

Thanks.

The guy is a friend at the gym and I gave him some general information last night. My bachelor's was in NeuroScience and PLS is one of the major case studies we did. I told him about the mirror box, though I have never seen/heard it performed with a missing foot.

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Permalink Reply by Chance Ryan on October 29, 2010 at 7:42pm

I have worked in VA's for years both as RN and as MT. I recently worked w/ a PT in the Asheville NC VA whom lost a leg in the War, he experienced phantom leg pain and as I explained to him it's very common, and to so you know it's just as real and even more so than pain one can physically see or understand.

I worked on his amputated leg, it was the first and only time someone had prvoded any TLC non medical poking and proding since his surgery, he was very happy w/ the work. He was sceduled to be heading back to Bethesda Naval Hospital to have the protruding femur bone shaved down.