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Abstract
Sudden limb loss due to combat injury is a significant psychotraumatic event for the patient, which creates multiple challenges for the serviceman to integrate into daily life activities and socially readaptate. The key problem for those patients is postamputation residual limb pain. This pain postpones prosthetics and impedes restoration of the employability. The purpose of this literature review is assisting practicing physicians in identifying patients after amputation with neuropathic residual limb pain and planning a treatment strategy. The literature search was performed using the electronic databases Medline/Pubmed, Embase, Scopus. Neuropathic postamputation pain is a common problem among patients after combat-associated amputation. The primary priority, while determining the treatment strategy, is to identify the mechanism of postamputation pain: nociceptive, neuropathic, and phantom pain components. Given the diversity of pathogenetic mechanisms of pain after amputation, a multidisciplinary approach and combined treatment are important. The neurologist and pain medicine specialist play the role of the first link in assessing the pain phenotype and planning the further treatment strategy for complex patients after amputation.
References
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