Limb

experience of excruciating pain caused by a limb or other body part that is no longer attached to the body, this disturbance can prove to be not only exasperating but extraordinarily frightening as well. This strange phenomenon, of experiencing a limb that has been removed from the body, is referred to as a “phantom limb.” Around “90 percent of amputees worldwide” have experienced these puzzling sensations. Interestingly, at times, the limb is sensed as having mobility and at others is sensed to be paralyzed. Amputees have conveyed they are subjected to a “tingling sensation,” that pervades the entirety of the limb that is missing, giving a…

Phantom Limb Pain (PLP) is described as a sense of pain in a non-existent extremity. This means that one who is missing their limb may feel pain which is perceived to be originating from where the original arm was. Not all cases of PLP are the same because everyone processes limb loss differently and no single injury are the same. Phantom limb pain can occur in various parts of the body and is not limited to a particular type of treatment. Similar to other illnesses, sensation vary from case to…

Most amputees report a sequela where they perceive painful sensations in the missing part of the amputated limbs1. This condition is known as phantom limb pain (PLP). While various hypotheses have been proposed to explain the etiology of PLP, it remains unclear1. In this essay, I will present the debate between two contrasting theories on the possible causes of PLP. One argues that PLP arises as a top-down phenomenon because of maladaptive cortical plasticity2, and conversely, the other…

In the Augmented Perception for Upper-Limb Rehabilitation study experimenters were looking at different hand postures and movements used in everyday skills. This was evaluated through identifying different motions of the arms, elbows, wrist, and fingers, and imitating these motions. With respect to identifying the motion, the participant either with or without a headset on, heard a beep, saw two stick figure arms, then saw either the left or right arm move and perform 1 of 4 actions (wiggle,…

difficult the lives could be after the amputees lost their arms or legs? Their lives will not be as easy as they had before. They cannot do many things that they used to do in their normal lives when they still have their limbs. A few hundred years ago, a hand amputee could only have a hook prosthesis with limited function and social stigma for the replacement of his hand. As the technology advances, hand amputees can now have the option for a hand transplant with bionic hands. Not only for the…

Limb deficiencies resulting from traumatic amputation are a specialized form of trauma. They often do not occur in children, and as such, can be difficult to handle. This trauma is also specifically labor intensive because it affects the child as whole: physically, emotionally, and psychologically. These consequences are persistent, occurring as soon as the trauma does, and continuing long after into the lives of the child and parents. These also mean that the child will require care in…

engineers specialized in technology for the living. Meeting between medicine and engineering, biomedical engineers find solutions for medicine and, in some cases, people’s disabilities. These disabilities appear from accidents in the workplace to war zones on a battlefield. Veterans lose limbs during duty, and many biomedical engineers study and attempt to find a proper solution for the veterans. One of the solutions is an orthopedic limb and artificial extension of a body’s lost limb. Even…

approximately 2 million people living in the United States who have undergone an amputation, and of those 2 million, up to 60-90% suffer from phantom limb sensations or phantom limb pain. Interestingly, these sensations do not seem to always fade with time as a patient adjusts to the loss of a limb, but as many as 70% report phantom sensations several years after the loss of the limb (Hanley et al., 2009; Foell, Berkrater-Bodmann, Diers, & Flor, 2014; Preissler et al.,2012; Ramachandran &…

Over the past couple years many scientists have heard about this strange pain in a part of the body that no longer exists. It is called Phantom Limb Pain. Many amputees agree that this pain is too much. Phantom Limb Pain occurs in 80 percent of the people who have had a limb amputated. Some amputees may experience tingling, cramping, heat, and cold in that part that has been removed. The sensations that may have been experienced before the limb was removed may be experienced to the phantom limb.…

Getting diagnosed paralyzed or losing a limb has to be one of the worst individual experiences a person can have. Thankfully, things could be looking up for these patients because DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has restored the sense of touch with a prosthetic arm given to a paralyzed person. Now, the patient can move the limbs with thought. “We’ve completed the circuit,” said DARPA program manager Justin Sanchez. “Prosthetic limbs that can be controlled by thoughts are…