Residual Limb Pain

After an amputation, about 60% of people have pain in the residual limb, which can severely limit function, impair quality of life, and significantly impede rehabilitation. Residual limb pain should be evaluated and treated aggressively, because some causes can be dangerous. (See also Overview of Limb Prosthetics.)

Phantom limb sensation is a desirable, nonpainful sensation that can improve a person's sense of where the limb is and is distinct from phantom limb pain.

Persistent residual limb pain is a chronic condition that differs from phantom limb pain and phantom limb sensation.

Causes of residual limb pain include

• Surgical pain

• Skin infection

• Deep tissue infection (for example, infection in the bone)

• Pressure points with or without skin breakdown

• Excessive growth of nerve tissue (a neuroma)

• Damage to nerves (neuropathy)

• Bone spurs

• Lack of blood flow to the limb (ischemia)

• Phantom limb pain

• Complex regional pain syndrome

A person with residual limb pain should first check for signs of infection and skin breakdown. If infection looks likely, the doctor should be consulted. Even if there is no obvious signs of infection, the doctor should be consulted if pain is severe and sudden or if there is fever; these symptoms may indicate an infection. The area may be cleaned or flushed out with a solution. Dead skin may be removed, and a bandage applied. Antibiotics and sometimes surgery may be needed.

Surgical wound pain typically resolves as tissues heal, usually over 3 to 6 months. Pain continuing beyond that time has numerous causes, including infection and a poorly fitting preparatory prosthesis. Treatments are directed at the cause and may also include modifying the prosthesis, not wearing the prosthesis until the wound heals, and taking painkillers.

Pain due to nerve damage (neuropathic pain) is common. Usually described as a shooting or burning pain, neuropathic pain typically develops within 7 days of amputation. It can go away on its own but is often long-lasting. It can be unrelenting and severe, or intermittent. Nerves may have been damaged from an injury or when they were severed during the amputation. Treatment of neuropathic pain includes psychologic treatments, physical methods, antidepressants, and antiseizure drugs.

Painful neuromas (noncancerous overgrowths of nerve tissue) can occur in any severed nerve (from surgery or trauma) and may cause pain that feels electrical, shooting, tingling, sharp and stabbing, or prickly. The pain typically does not involve the phantom limb but can. Other symptoms of neuroma include unusual and unpleasant sensations that occur without stimulation or upon contraction of residual-limb muscles and a disagreeable sensation (dysesthesia) that occurs with light palpation of skin. The longer the neuroma is irritated, either from wearing the prosthesis or from muscle contractions, the longer it takes to go away. Doctors sometimes do MRI and/or ultrasound to confirm the diagnosis of neuroma. A severe neuroma may require surgery.

People whose amputation was necessitated by poor circulation (peripheral arterial disease) may have poor circulation in their residual limb, which can be difficult to diagnose.

Sometimes pain is felt in other limbs or in the hips, spine, shoulders, or neck. This pain may occur because wearing a prosthesis makes people change the way they walk or hold their body (body alignment) or causes them to repeat movements. Regularly doing specific stretching exercises and exercises to strengthen muscles may help prevent or relieve this type of pain. A physical therapist can help design an appropriate exercise program.