Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Hopefully you or someone you love will never require a limb amputation.  One of the chief side effects of losing an arm or leg is so-called phantom limb pain, and it occurs in some 75% of amputees.  This is a painful sensation that seems to be coming from the portion of the limb that is no longer there.   Reconstructive surgeons at Ohio State now announce a fix for this problem, and its called targeted muscle reinnervation or TMR.  This procedure involves rerouting the cut nerve ends into surrounding muscle, and it was first used to enhance use of prosthetic limbs, but patients also noticed an absence of any limb pain. A study of 22 patients with below the knee amputations shows that, after nerve rerouting, only 13% rather than 75% had any pain sensations.  At Ohio State, this procedure is now done at the time of amputation in all patients, but it is possible to perform it after the fact with beneficial results. If you or yours have phantom limb pain or are facing an amputation, ask the surgeon about TMR. Vid