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Register Free Webinar: Management of Pain Related to Traumatic Amputation in Civilians and Combatants June 11, 2026 10 AM ET
Register free here.
There is currently a lack of high-quality evidence to guide the management of pains following traumatic amputation (phantom limb pain, stump pain, secondary musculoskeletal pain). Additionally, evidence is limited to inform care for associated mental health conditions (depression, anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), as well as the moral consequences of trauma (moral injury, guilt, shame). Pain after traumatic amputation is a complex and multifaceted condition that does not readily lend itself to traditional randomized controlled trial (RCT) methodologies. Consequently, with the currently large number of traumatic-related amputees worldwide, critical knowledge needs to be derived from clinical expertise and accumulated experience.
The objective of this symposium is to provide a platform for experienced clinicians to present and reflect upon the expertise they are gaining through routine clinical care of individuals with traumatic amputations. By facilitating dialogue between clinicians with frontline experience and those seeking to enhance their practice, the symposium aims to promote shared learning and improve patient care. The meeting also aims to facilitate dialogue to explore potential options for clinical research.
The webinar will bring together clinicians and researchers involved in a number of initiatives addressing different aspects of pain management after amputation, including, among others, PAMELA (https://pamela.in.ua/), the UK ADVANCE project (www.advancestudydmrc.org.uk), Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, and the emerging IASP Pain After Traumatic Amputation (PATA) global initiative.
Learning Objectives:
– Describe the clinical features of phantom limb, residual, and musculoskeletal pain associated with traumatic amputation.
– Identify pharmacological, non-pharmacological, and surgical treatment approaches commonly used in the clinical routine for management of amputation-related pain in different healthcare environments, in low-, middle, and high-resource healthcare systems.
– Evaluate the effectiveness of these treatment approaches in alleviating pain in the different healthcare environments.
– Describe the clinical features of mental health conditions (depression, anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and moral consequences of trauma (moral injury, guilt, shame) which are associated with traumatic amputation.
– Identify treatment approaches commonly used in the clinical routine for the management of mental health conditions associated with traumatic amputation.
– Evaluate the effectiveness of these treatment approaches in low-, middle and high-resource healthcare systems. Participants will also be able to describe current approaches for research in this field and how they might apply them in the environments in which they work.
The session is designed for healthcare providers caring for people who have been injured by trauma and undergone an amputation. This would include: physicians (e.g., anesthetists, orthopedic /traumatology surgeons, plastic surgeons, rehabilitation), nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and prosthetists. The target audience also includes researchers studying clinical and mechanistic aspects of pain management after amputation.
Symposium Agenda
| Topic | Speaker |
| Introductions:
PAMELA Pain & Trauma SIG Pain Registry SIG
|
Winfried Meissner, MD
Dept of Anesthesiology & Intensive Care Jena University Hospital, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany Dominic Aldington, FRCA Department of Pain Medicine, Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester, UK David Holloway, PhD Electronic Persistent Pain Outcomes Collaboration, Australian Health Services Research Institute, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia. |
| Reflections on and describing the scope of amputation-related pains
(phantom limb, stump, musculoskeletal) in areas of conflict, internationally |
|
| Armed Conflict-Related Post-Amputation Pain – A Long View | Andrew Rice, MD
IASP President Professor of Pain Research, Imperial College London, UK |
| Early Rehabilitation after Amputation in Ukraine: What are the 4 Priorities for MSF? | Tankred Stoebe, MD
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières Germany |
| Pain after amputation due to war injury:
Pilot data based on a 3-D-avatar. |
Burkhard Gustorff, MD
Director, Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Ottakring Hospital Vienna, Austria |
| Phantom Limb Pain After Elective Amputation Surgery: Dynamics and Pain Quality | Sascha Tefalski, MD
Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Charité University Hospital, Berlin, Germany |
| Q & A | |
| Techniques for treatment & assessment from different regions of the world | |
| Surgical Approaches to Phantom Limb Pain: What is the Evidence? What are the Outcomes? | Jennifer Ernst, MD
Hannover Medical School, Department of Trauma Surgery, Hannover, Germany |
| The PAMELA project in Ukraine: What have we learned so far? | Volodymyr Romanenko, MD
Ukrainian Medical Academy, Ukraine VItaly Marchenko Superhumans, Rehabilitation Center, Lviv, Ukraine |
| Overcoming the Psycho-Social Burden of Amputation: How can this be done? | Jan Van Der Merwe, PhD
Formerly: King Edward VII’s Hospital, Centre of Veterans’ Health, London, UK |
| ADVANCE – A registry assessing trauma-related amputations: can these methods offer a template for the rest of the world? | Harriet Kemp, PhD, FRCA
Pain Research Group, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, London, UK. |
| Q & A
Discussion and wrap up To advance management – where might we go next? |
Winfried Meissner, MD
Ruth Zaslansky, DSc |
