1902 Nursing Care to a Child with Phantom Limb Syndrome: A Case Report

Background and Aims Analysis of a clinical case regarding an uncommon health problem in paediatric age, the amputation of a limb and the subsequent “phantom limb pain (PLP)”. Aim of this work is to describe nursing care in a case of advanced nursing practice in PICU, with the need of multidisciplinary care and with multicultural implications. Methods Case report. Discussion The patient is a 9 years old child of Chinese nationality. She lives in Italy with her parents, has a hearing impaired brother and a disabled sister. The child had a road accident and suffered major injuries. Transferred to the PICU, the amputation of the lower right limb and a permanent tutor to the left limb were inevitable. After the surgery, the child suffered severe pain to the limbs and an onset of sepsis due to necrosis of the wounds. Treated with antibiotics, she recovered from the sepsis but the pain remained. The assessment data show nursing diagnosis related to the child and the family, from NANDA-I International taxonomy: Impaired physical mobility; Disturbed sensory perception; Disturbed body image; Acute pain, Post traumatic syndrome and Impaired parenting. For each of them the team identified related outcomes and nursing interventions (from NOC and NIC taxonomies). Conclusions The analysis of the case and the literature review show a lack of literature about the care of PLP in paediatric care, especially in nursing field. Nurses should have a major role with this kind of patients, not limited to pain monitoring and drug therapy administration.