PHANTOM LIMBS OF PATIENTS WITH SPINAL CORD INJURY

Abstract

REVIEW OF LITERATURE THE LITERATURE is replete with information on the phantom limb of the amputee. Data are also readily available which are concerned with disturbances of the body scheme. Periphery and center have thus found attention with regard to phantom phenomena; in contrast, little is known of the phantoms which accompany an injury of the spinal cord. Riddoch¹and Mayer-Gross²are the only authors to have reported their observations on patients (and the number is relatively small) with injuries of the spinal cord. One reason for the scarcity of information may be that the survival period following trauma to the spinal cord was brief in the past. Another reason for the "apparent rarity" may be, in the words of Riddoch,^1cthat the "phantoms may exactly coincide with the real limbs." Recent advances of management and rehabilitation in paraplegic centers³have made possible a study on