ABSTRACT
A very simple but accurate definition of the phantom limb phenomenon is to be found in the masterpiece of the French anatomist Xavier Bichat: “Ainsi, quand l’extrémité du moignon fait souffrir le malade qui vient d’éprouver une amputation, le principe qui sent en lui éprouve bien la sensation, mais il se trompe sur l’endroit d’où elle part: il la rapporte au pied qui n’existe plus” (In this way, when the end of the stump makes the patient who underwent an amputation suffer, the principle which feels in him indeed experiences the sensation, but he is mistaken as to the place where it comes from: he relates it to the foot which does not exist any more, Bichat, 1830). Hypotheses concerning etiology of the phantom limb pain include the gate theory (loss of sensory input decreases self-sustaining neural activity of the gate, causing pain), the peripheral theory (nerve endings in the stump represent parts originally innervated by the severed nerve), and the psychologic theory (hostility, guilt, and denial are interpreted as pain) (Krupski et al., 1994).
