A 38-year-old client presents to the pain clinic with complaints of ph

A 38-year-old client presents to the pain clinic with complaints of phantom pain. The client was involved in a farming accident 3 years previously that resulted in a below-the-elbow amputation of his right arm.

The nurse knows that phantom pain is categorized as:
1. Painful polyneuropathy
2. Somatic pain
3. Sympathetically maintained pain
4. Deafferentation pain

ANSWER

ANS: 4
Deafferentation pain comes from injury to either the peripheral or central nervous system. Phan-tom pain reflects injury to the peripheral nervous system. In painful polyneuropathy the client feels pain along the distribution of many peripheral nerves; examples include diabetic neuropathy, alcohol-nutritional neuropathy, and Guillain-Barré syndrome. Somatic pain comes from bone, joint, muscle, skin, or connective tissue. It is usually aching or throbbing in quality and is well localized. Sympathetically maintained pain is associated with dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system; examples include pain associated with reflex sympathetic dystrophy/causalgia (complex regional pain syndrome, type I, type II).