Phantom limb pain in young cancer-related amputees: recent experience at St Jude Children's Research Hospital

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: This study in children and young adults having cancer-related amputation aimed to examine the incidence of phantom limb pain (PLP) in the first year after amputation and also the proportion of patients who had preamputation pain. METHODS: A retrospective review of medical records was undertaken. The proportion of patients with PLP was reported. Fisher exact test was used to examine the association between PLP and the presence of preamputation pain and between PLP and age (≤ 18 y vs. >18 y). RESULTS: Twenty-six amputations were performed on 25 patients. During the year after amputation, 76% of patients had experienced PLP at some time. After 1 year, though, only 10% still had PLP. Preamputation pain was present in 64% of patients. Although both of our patients with PLP at 1 year were young adults (older than or equal to 18 y) and both had preamputation pain, we found no statistically significant associations between age or the presence of preamputation pain with PLP. DISCUSSION: PLP after cancer-related amputation in children and young adults seems to be common but generally short lived in most patients.