A unique condition in patients who have lost a limb (typically arm or leg), phantom limb pain is when the patient feels like the limb is still there, and in pain. Those who experience this condition describe it as a shooting, stabbing, throbbing, burning, or aching pain in the nonexistent limb.

Research suggests that phantom limb pain originates in the spinal cord and brain. It may be that when the brain loses sensory input from a limb, it tries to remap the body’s sensory circuitry, causing mixed signals in the brain.

While this condition typically occurs in patients who have lost an arm or leg, patients who have lost body parts, such as eyes, a tongue, breasts, a penis, ears, etc., can experience it.