Leiden UMC: Existing treatment can prevent phantom limb pain for amputees

Researchers at Leiden University Medical Center believe that an existing surgical treatment can prevent or significantly reduce phantom limb pain in amputees. Over 60 percent of people who undergo amputation suffer from this chronic nerve pain, which can be debilitating. The Leiden hospital has launched a large-scale study to prove the efficacy of the treatment and see if it can be standardly performed with amputation.

Neurosurgeon and research leader Justus Groen has often performed this surgery and has good experiences with it, he told NOS. It involves connecting the nerves that are cut during an amputation to a muscle, bone, or fat. This makes the nerve think it has a function, resulting in no or significantly less nerve and phantom pain.

The method is currently not standard practice for amputations. The ends of the severed nerves are tied off or burned through, causing nerve scars in the stump. That has to do with the nature of the surgery, Groen explained. “Amputations are life-saving operations. The priority is then to save a life. But we think that it can be done at the same time: saving a life and reconnecting nerves. That is what we are going to investigate.”

“Given the advantages of the alternative, I think that we can spare many people this terrible pain by immediately giving the nerve a new connection when the amputation is performed,” Groen said. “Such an operation does more than just take away pain.” It has the added advantage of treated patients no longer needing medical care or medication to treat that pain for the rest of their lives.

Six hospitals and 260 patients, including a control group, will participate in the study. “We expect that all of this will work well together,” Groen said. “But in order to also get it reimbursed as healthcare, you first have to prove it scientifically.”