Phantom pain in children and youth with congenital amputations: prevalence and clinical characteristics

Abstract

Introduction: Pain is a crippling pathology, which has been addressed in children only in recent times, and phantom pain in congenital amputees was a complication unthought to exist some years ago, considering theories that des-cribed that they lacked biological maturity enough to experience it. Currently, there is literature that recognizes a prevalence of phantom pain of 3.7 to 20% in congenital amputees. Overall objective: To evaluate the in vivo amputee population of Instituto Teletón Santiago, to determine incidence, lapses pre-valence and clinical characteristics of phantom pain in these patients. Patients and Methods: A prevalence descriptive study was carried out, with a review of the clinical files to register demographic and clinical variables and application of a telephone survey to the total number of Instituto Teletón Santiago patients who agreed to participate and had the consent of their parents. We included all patients aged 10 years and over; excluding those with associated hearing loss, or inability to contact for administrative reasons. Results: 57 patients, mean age 18,6 years, 59,6% with longitudinal deficiency. No patient refered phantom pain during de last month in the study population. The lapsic pre-valence was 7,0%. 24,6% of the population studied reported phantom feeling at som time in their lives and 5,3% had phantom pain during the last year. Conclusion: There is phantom pain in the population of congenital amputees in the prevalence ranges found in the international literature contributing to the existing evidence. This is the first study in our country that evaluates pain in congenital deficiencies and constitutes a baseline for additional studies