Phantom Limbs Symptoms in Children with Amputated Limbs and its Relationship to Some Demographic and Clinical Variables

The study aimed to investigate phantom limb phenomena in children with amputated limbs and examine its relationship with some demographic and clinical variables, including sex (male, female), type of amputation (lower, upper), age (9–12, 13-15, 16-18) years, cause of amputation (war, accident, illness), use of prosthetic limbs (use, no use), and pain intensity (severe, mild).

The sample consisted of 38 children aged (9–18) years who attended the Limbs and Physiotherapy Center in Sana'a. The researcher developed the Phantom Limbs Scale to measure symptoms, ensuring its validity and reliability through psychometric testing. Data were analyzed using SPSS, employing weighted means, percentages, and Eta Correlation.

The study findings consisted the following:

1.    Participants exhibited an average level of phantom limb symptoms.

2.    Statistically significant differences at the (0.05) level were observed between the arithmetic means of phantom limb symptoms and the hypothetical means, favoring the arithmetic mean.

3.    No statistically significant correlations at the (0.05) level were found between phantom limb symptoms and the demographic variables studied, including gender, type of amputation, age, cause of amputation, use of prosthetic limbs, and pain intensity.

The study concludes by emphasizing the need for further research to explore other potential factors influencing phantom limb symptoms in children with amputations.