A research team identified risk factors for phantom limb pain in people who had an amputation following a malignant tumor. The analysis showed that age, pre-operative pain, number of surgeries, amputation site, and amputation level were independent risk factors for phantom limb pain.
The study cohort consisted of 168 patients who had bone and soft tissue tumors (98 men and 70 women; 27 upper-limb and 141 lower-limb amputations; age at amputation of nine to 75 years old). The patient group, who underwent amputation surgeries from 2013 to 2023, were divided into phantom limb pain group and non-phantom limb pain groups. The researchers also analyzed 2,935 patient records following amputations from the orthopedic hospital database.
The open-access study, “Risk factors analysis of phantom limb pain in amputees with malignant tumors,” was published in the Journal of Neuropathic Pain.
