Der Unfallchirurg
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Case Reports
[Therapeutic concept for preventing chronic phantom pain after traumatic brachial plexus lesion].
We report on a 29-year-old motorcyclist, who had suffered a traumatic right side arm plexus lesion. The myelo-CT image showed a avulsion of the cervical roots C7/C8. Five days after the accident the patient complained of phantom pain in the right plegic arm and was presented to our acute pain service (APS). ⋯ The additional psychological treatment with relaxation techniques (Jacobson/Bensen) showed the desired phantom pain relief. An interdisciplinary and multimodal cooperation between anesthesiologists, trauma surgeons, neurosurgeons and psychologists is needed for successful phantom pain treatment after traumatic brachial plexus lesion. Intravenous salmon calcitonin showed only short-term analgetic effect.