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Pain site and impairment in individuals with amputation pain
Helen M Marshall1, Mark P Jensen, Dawn M Ehde
1Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle 98195-6490, USA.
Objective:
To determine the association between pain site and pain interference with activities of daily living (ADLs) among persons with acquired amputation.
Design:
Survey.
Setting:
Community-based survey from clinical databases, flyer postings, and an advertisement in the inMotion magazine.
Participants:
Persons with lower-limb amputations (N=478).
Interventions:
Six or more months after lower-limb amputation, participants completed an amputation pain questionnaire that included several standardized pain measures.
Main Outcome Measures:
Numeric rating scale measures of average phantom limb, residual limb, and back pain and pain-related impairment as measured by a modified version of the Pain Interference Scale of the Brief Pain Inventory.
Results:
Phantom limb, residual limb, and back pain intensity ratings, as a group, accounted for 20% of the variance in pain interference. The pain intensity ratings associated with each individual pain site made a statistically significant contribution to the prediction of pain interference with ADLs even after controlling for the pain intensity of the other 2 sites.
Conclusions:
Pain in each of 3 sites (phantom limb, residual limb, back) appears to be important to pain-related impairment and function. Measurement of the intensity of pain at each site appears to be required for a thorough assessment of amputation pain-related impairment.