Using Mr. MAPP for Lower Limb Phantom Pain Management

Abstract

Phantom pain is a chronic pain that is experienced as a vivid sensation stemming from the missing limb. From traditional mirror box to virtual reality-based approaches, a wide spectrum of treatments using mimic feedback of the amputated limb have been developed for alleviating phantom limb pain. In our previous work, Mixed reality-based framework for MAnaging Phantom Pain (Mr.MAPP) was presented and used to generate a virtual phantom upper limb, in real time, to manage the phantom pain. However, amputation of the lower limb is more common than that of the upper limb. Hence, in this paper, on top of demonstrating the reproducibility of the Mr.MAPP framework for upper limb, we extend it to manage lower limb phantom pain as well. Unlike an upper limb amputee, a patient with lower limb amputated is constrained to perform the training procedure in a sitting posture. Accordingly, virtual training games are designed for lower limb exercises with sitting posture such as knee flexion and extension, ankle dorsiflexion and tandem coordinated movement. Finally, the technical details of the system setup for playing the training games are introduced.