Case Report
Early Intervention with a Tactile Discrimination Task for Phantom Limb Pain that is Related to Superficial Pain: Two Case Reports
Michihiro Osumi1*, Hideki Nakano1,2, Masahiko Kusaba3 and Shu Morioka1 | |
1Department of Neurorehabilitation, Graduate School of Health Science, Kio University, Japan | |
2Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan | |
3Osaka medical college hospital, Takatsuki, Osaka, Japan | |
Corresponding Author : | Michihiro Osumi Department of Neurorehabilitation Graduate School of Health Science Kio University, 4-2-2 Umami-naka, Koryo-tyo Kitakatsuragi-gun, Nara 635-0832, Japan Tel: +81-745-54-1601 Fax: +81-745-54-1600 E-mail: p0511109@univ.kio.ac.jp |
Received August 17, 2012; Accepted September 22, 2012; Published September 25, 2012 | |
Citation: Osumi M, Nakano H, Kusaba M, Morioka S (2012) Early Intervention with a Tactile Discrimination Task for Phantom Limb Pain that is Related to Superficial Pain: Two Case Reports. J Nov Physiother S1:003. doi:10.4172/2165-7025.S1-003 | |
Copyright: © 2012 Osumi M, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
Abstract
We report the outcome of an early intervention with a tactile discrimination task in 2 patients with phantom limb pain related to superficial pain, after qualitative assessment. Two patients experienced phantom limb pain related to superficial pain after amputation performed because of diabetic gangrene. The 2 patients were asked to discriminate the region of tactile sensation when a cushion was held to the amputation stump. At the beginning of the discrimination task, the patients could not discriminate the region of tactile sensation accurately. However, after the discrimination task, the subjects could discriminate the region of tactile sensation, and the phantom limb pain improved. This result shows the importance of an immediate decision regarding intervention, after the qualitative assessment of phantom limb pain.