Schedule of Events | Symposia

Efficacy and mechanisms of virtual reality treatment of phantom leg pain. A clinical trial study.

Poster Session F - Tuesday, April 1, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Elisabetta Ambron¹ (eli.ambron@gmail.com), Rand Williamson², Jing-Sheng Li³, Maxim Karrenbach³, Erik Rombokas³, Laurel Buxbaum², H. Branch Coslett; ¹University of Pennsylvania, ²Jefferson Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute, ³University of Washington

Approximately 90% of individuals with limb amputation experience the persistent sensation of the missing extremity and up to 85% experience debilitating pain in the missing limb, a condition termed phantom limb pain (PLP). We previously demonstrated that Virtual Reality (VR) with active leg movements and vision of a virtual limb significantly reduces phantom limb pain in subjects with below the knee amputations. In this clinical trial, we tested the efficacy and mechanisms of VR treatment of phantom leg pain in thirty-six lower limb amputees with PLP. Participants were randomly assigned to an 8 session VR treatment with Active VR or a commercially available VR pain treatment (REAL i-Series®) and asked to rate their PLP before and after each session. Using ultra-high resolution (7T) functional magnetic resonance imaging, precise somatosensory and motor maps of the limb and connectivity data were obtained at the beginning and at the end of the treatment to test for possible treatment-related changes in cortical representation of the lower limb and connectivity within the pain matrix. Our data show a beneficial effect of VR treatment for PLP, in particular for active treatment, and advance theoretical understanding of the mechanisms and functional neuroanatomy of PLP.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Multisensory