Objective: To prospectively study factors associated with the occurrence ofphantom sensations and pains in a pre-selected sample of child and adolescent amputees reporting phantom limbs.Design: Prospective diary study over I month.Participants:Fourteen child and adolescent amputees from lQ-18 years of age who were missing a limb due to trauma (n = 12) or congenital limb deficiency (n = 2), and who had previously reported having phantom sensations and pain.Main Outcome Measure: Diary used to assess the occurrence of non-painful and painful phantom sensations. Items included age, sex, location and cause of amputation, past experience with stump pain and pre-amputation pain, and intensity, quality, duration, and triggers of the sensations and pains.Results: Thirteen amputees reported having 104 incidents of nonpainful phantom sensations with an average intensity of 4.17 (SD = 2.14) on a Q-IO rating scale. Fifty-three incidents of phantom pain with an average intensity of 6.43 (SD = 1.76) were recorded by 8 amputees. Both amputees with a congenital limb deficiency re- ported phantom phenomena. Girls reported more psychosocial triggers than did boys whereas boys were more likely than girls to report that they could not identify a trigger (P =0.0001). Boys also reported a higher proportion of physical triggers than psychosocial triggers while there were no differences for girls (P = 0.0001).Discussion: Child and adolescent amputees experience phantom sensations and pains on a regular basis over a I-month period. Differences in triggers ofphantom phenomena between boys and girls may be due to differences in activities, awareness, attribution, and willingness to report psychosocial triggers.
