Ambulatory continuous peripheral nerve blocks to treat postamputation phantom limb pain: a multicenter, randomized, quadruple-masked, placebo-controlled clinical trial.

ABSTRACT: Phantom limb pain is thought to be sustained by reentrant neural pathways, which provoke dysfunctional reorganization in the somatosensory cortex. We hypothesized that disrupting reentrant pathways with a 6-day-long continuous peripheral nerve block reduces phantom pain 4 weeks after treatment. We enrolled patients who had an upper- or lower-limb amputation and established phantom pain. Each was randomized to receive a 6-day perineural infusion of either ropivacaine or normal saline. The primary outcome was the average phantom pain severity as measured with a Numeric Rating Scale (0-10) at 4 weeks, after which an optional crossover treatment was offered within the following 0 to 12 weeks. Pretreatment pain scores were similar in both groups, with a median (interquartile range) of 5.0 (4.0,

SUBMITTER: Ilfeld BM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7920494 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature