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Brian Vastag

JAMA. 2001;286:2390.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Most people with amputated limbs, up to 80%, feel pain in their stumps or in the area of the missing limbs. New research concludes that the two types of pain are separate sensations. Stump pain originates in damaged nerves near the site of injury, while "phantom" pain begins and ends in the brain, according to results presented at the American Society of Anesthesiologists annual meeting in New Orleans.

This bifurcation in pain origin means that treatment can be better tailored, said Srinivasa N. Raja, MD, Johns Hopkins professor and lead author. Until now, he said, "treatment of phantom and stump pain has been disappointing, in part due to the uncertain nature of the mechanisms" responsible for each type.

For the double-blind study, Raja and colleagues injected 32 amputees with lidocaine, morphine, or placebo for 3 consecutive days. Pain measures and patient satisfaction scores were recorded every 5 minutes, . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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