Thursday, June 23, 2016

Cryoablation Therapy and Phantom Limb Pain

I currently work in a physical therapy office, which sees a wide variety of patients. One of the first patients I worked with was a man who recently lost his left leg. I recall him often speaking of phantom limb pain and thought of him when reading about Ben Curry in Chapter 6. This section discussed how the brain, “remembers touch you’ve lost” and specifically phantom limb pain. Phantom limb pain is something, which can be extremely difficult to treat. Recently a new study has been published introducing the effectiveness of introducing cryoablation therapy. This therapy works to freeze the nerve for about 25 minuets to shut down the system feeling the pain. So far this new approach has been studied within a small group of individuals at Emory Saint Josephs Hospital and has shown a high percentage of success.  Hopefully this new approach will help ease the pain of many more individuals suffering!
I’ve attached a short video and article which interviews one of the subject who received the treatment and explains the concept pretty well: http://emorymedicinemagazine.emory.edu/issues/2015/fall/briefs/easing-phantom-limb-pain/index.html

1 comment:

  1. Emily,

    That is very cool. Thank you for sharing! I also worked within a physical therapy office that had a man lose his arm that spoke of phantom limb pain as well and while reading of Ben Curry in Chapter 6, I too, was brought back to remember the man I had my encounter with. It is great to hear of the success this study has achieved so far, I hope to hear of many more individuals that will be treated with it as well.

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