Citation

Jupiter DC, Shibuya N, Clawson LD, Davis ML. J. Foot Ankle Surg. 2012; 51(3): 317-322.

Affiliation

Department of Surgery, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College of Medicine, Temple, TX, USA. djupiter@swmail.sw.org

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1053/j.jfas.2012.01.001

PMID

22285499

Abstract

Mobility, especially in elderly patients, is often a proxy for overall health. It is thus of interest to understand the rates of lower extremity amputation and the risk factors for these procedures in the trauma population. We compared the rates of lower extremity amputation in low- versus high-level trauma by analyzing the National Trauma Data Bank. We also attempted to identify the risk factors in the low-level trauma population with foot and ankle trauma that predispose to lower extremity amputation. The factors associated with lower extremity amputation in foot and ankle trauma differed slightly from those in other multi-trauma patients. The factors associated with lower extremity amputation in the low-level foot and ankle trauma population that were statistically and clinically significant in this study included male gender, confounding injury, other trauma type versus blunt trauma, penetrating versus blunt trauma, occurrence of fracture, and occurrence of crush injury or wound. Understanding these risk factors will assist in educating patients and their family about their prognosis. Also, understanding these risk factors will assist surgeons with patient selection when considering salvage procedures.

Language: en