Amputees live with pains, says study

Sierra Leoneans whose limbs were brutally chopped off during the 1991-2001 war have lived with pains for up to four years after being amputated, Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF, says in a new report. The report, published on 1 July, is based on a study started in May 2000 in Murray Town Amputees' Camp in the capital, Freetown, where MSF has a clinic that treats neuropathic pain - pain associated with ailments of the nervous system. The pains the amputees suffer are known as "stump and phantom pains". "Many of the amputees were living with pain," MSF said. "Their amputations happened between 10 and 48 months previously. The chop was with a machete in most cases or with an axe, a few the result of a bullet wound. All the 40 people assessed had stump pain. One man described in detail the burning, "drawing" (stretching), and pricking in his elbow stump." Murray camp is home to 2,000 people, including about 140 people who had lost an arm or a hand and another 80 who had leg amputations. MSF said that when medication was administered "improvements were found in measures of mood, in day-to-day life and in pain". It said patients on medication thought it reduced their pain and on examination there were fewer physical signs. The number of amputees in Sierra Leone is estimated to be 1,000. There had been more but an unknown number died from infection or associated injuries. In January 1999, Freetown's main hospital treated 97 victim of amputation by axes and machetes and MSF treated 40 cases of serious lacerations to the arms and legs caused by attempted amputations, the study said. "The warring parties used amputation, especially of arms, as a means of terror," it added. "All parties in the war have been implicated in the perpetration of war crimes. Civilians were the victims of various human rights abuses, including rape, abduction, and violent amputation." Further details can be found at: http://www.msf.org/ and on the site of the International Association for the Study of Pain : http://www.iasp-pain.org/