Does“treatment of pain”really relieve patients from pain ?

Abstract

We reported a 65 year-old male patient who suffered from severe phantom limb pain for many years. Various pain-relief therapies gave him more increased and newly created pain. Seven years ago he received serious life-threatening injury by belt-conveyer accident. After life-saving therapies succeeded his recovery course was complicated, left arm amputation surgery above elbow was performed. Immediately after the surgery he complained severe phantom left arm pain and received various medical therapies but resulted in little effects and caused to drug induced liver damage at that. Trials of continuous epidural block and spinal cord electric stimulation therapy gained no pain relief but new suffering of infection and another severe pain. His knowledge about “phantom limb pain” was limited only to the name of disease and he had no information on the cause of disease and the received therapies but complained about the hard experiences of previous treatment. We informed him in detail about the disease and the therapeutic means, and recommended oral morphine therapy as a useful option.He received our proposal, oral morphine regimen were started. 70-80 mg daily oral morphine relieved him from severe pain and now he obtained ordinary gentle life again. In the guideline for “Cancer Pain Relief”, WHO states that “(cancer) pain, can and should, be treated”, and “believe the patient's report of pain”, these two statements are the important standards in practice of pain relieving treatment, too.