Phantom Sensations

People who experience phantom limb sensations feel a temperature change or a tingling or itching coming from a body part that they either had amputated or were born without.

Unlike phantom sensation, which is usually painless, phantom pain is a shooting, throbbing or stabbing pain that comes from an area of the body where an amputation has taken place.

Doctors are still searching for the exact cause of phantom pain — damaged nerve endings, scar tissue or the physical memory of the pain of the injury may play a role.

But many experts point to the spinal cord and the brain as the probable source of the pain. After an amputation, the brain and spinal cord stop receiving messages from the missing limb, which sends a signal to the brain that something is wrong. The end result is a pain sensation.