@article{ref1,
title="Falls in a young active amputee population: a frequent cause of rehospitalization?",
journal="Military medicine",
year="2015",
author="Felcher, Shaun M. and Stinner, Daniel J. and Krueger, Chad A. and Wilken, Jason M. and Gajewski, Donald A. and Hsu, Joseph R.",
volume="180",
number="10",
pages="1083-1086",
abstract="Falls occur in up to 50% of amputees within a single year of their operation and up to 40% of these falls result in injury. However, there is a lack of data evaluating falls in a young, active amputee population despite an estimated 58% of persons living with an amputation being under the age of 65. The authors evaluated an amputee population (n = 393) with a mean age of 25.53 years. Overall incidence, prevalence, fall characteristics, and risk factors were calculated for falls resulting in rehospitalization. An incidence of 1.92 per 1,000 person years with a prevalence of 2.04% was found with 87.5% occurring within the first 6 months following definitive amputation. Of the patients rehospitalized, 75% required at least 1 surgical procedure. Infectious complications had the most significant morbidity requiring a mean of 5 operative procedures. Those that delayed evaluation (mean = 13 days) vs. those that presented 0 to 1 day from a fall were significantly more at risk of an infectious complication (p = 0.03). This study is the first to report such a relationship, and emphasizes the need for at-risk patients to seek early medical attention as this may minimize the risk of infection and obviate the need for surgical intervention.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0026-4075",
doi="10.7205/MILMED-D-14-00450",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.7205/MILMED-D-14-00450"
}