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Practical Experience with Sonographically Guided Phenol Instillation of Stump Neuroma: Predictors of Effects, Success, and Outcome

¹ Department of Radiology, Radiodiagnostics Clinic, Department I, Medical University of Innsbruck, Anichstrasse 35, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
² Department of Radiology, St. Bernard's Hospital, Gibraltar.
³ Zentralroentgeninstitut, Wilhelminenspital Wien, Vienna, Austria.
⁴ Department of Neurosurgery, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
⁵ Department of Medical Statistics, Computer Sciences, and Health Management, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.

OBJECTIVE. Phantom limb pain and stump pain frequently occur after limb amputation, and stump neuromas play an important role in generation of the pain. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a previously described optimized procedure for sclerosis of painful stump neuromas under real-time high-resolution sonographic guidance.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS. In this prospective study, neurosclerosis was performed on 82 patients by means of high-resolution sonographically guided injection of up to 0.8 mL of 80% phenol solution according to a standardized protocol.

RESULTS. During treatment all patients had marked improvement in terms of reduction of pain measured with a visual analog scale. Twelve (15%) of the subjects were pain free after one to three treatments, nine of the 12 achieving relief with the initial instillation. At 6-month follow-up evaluation, 52 patients assessed their present pain quantity with a simplified three-step score. Twenty (38%) of the 52 patients reported almost unnoticeable pain, and 33 (64%) reported pain equal to the minimum reached during therapy. In 18 (35%) of the 52 patients, the incidence of painful periods had markedly decreased. The neurosclerosis procedure had a low complication rate (5% rate of minor complications, 1.3% rate of major complications).

CONCLUSION. The high-resolution sonographically guided neurosclerosis procedure had a significantly better outcome than other documented treatments. Sonographically guided neurosclerosis should be included in the management of chronic phantom limb and stump pain.

Keywords: amputation • neuroma • pain • sclerotherapy • sonography

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