ABSTRACT
Phantom limb pain is a frequent consequence of amputation and can be defined as pain in a body part that is no longer present. Although phantom limb pain occurs in up to 85% of patients after amputation, the characteristics of this pain vary drastically. All procedures were approved by the local Ethics Committee and, being an experimental trial using non-CE marked medical devices, also by the Italian Ministry of Health. An informed consent was signed by the patient before beginning the trial. The system was tested in a 34-year-old male with a traumatic transradial amputation of the left arm in January 2004. About a week after the amputation, the patient began to present a painful phantom limb syndrome, which at the time of the trial was reported as a constant sensation of “very intense painful clenched fist” of the amputated phantom hand, almost constant, worsening with the cold. The most efficacious train of multichannel stimulation was used for pain treatment.
