Open AccessPhantom radiculopathy: a rare postoperative phenomenon
Author(s) -
Maheswaran Archunan,
Sriram Srinivasan
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
bmj case reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.231
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 1757-790X
DOI - 10.1136/bcr-2020-234433
Subject(s) - medicine , phantom pain , phantom limb , amputation , imaging phantom , surgery , phantom limb pain , orthopedic surgery , radiology
Limb amputations are carried out for a number of reasons, which include trauma, vascular disorders, infection, oncology and congenital abnormalities. These patients can develop multiple complications postoperatively with phantom limb pain being a well-recognised issue. That being said, phantom radiculopathy is far less encountered and can therefore be easily overlooked. There are limited cases described in literature and as a result pathophysiology is poorly understood. In this report, we present a patient who had developed phantom radiculopathy decades after his left above knee amputation surgery, which was performed after a road traffic accident. However, we were successfully able to treat the patient with foraminal epidural corticosteroid injection.