Aging and Amputation

1 Executive Secretary, Committee on Prosthetic-Orthotic Education, Division of Medical Sciences, National Academy of Sciences—National Research Council, 2101 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, D. C. 20418. The loss of a part of a lower extremity due to peripheral vascular disease (PVD) incident to the effects of arteriosclerosis with or without the presence of diabetes is today the predominant type of amputation that is being performed in peacetime in the Western World; i.e., the United States and Europe. These ischemic amputations begin to make their appearance in the late forties of life and their incidence increases rapidly in succeeding decades. Lower-extremity PVD cases constituted 85 per cent of all amputations performed at the Massachusetts General Hospital during the period 1962-1964 and the average age of these patients was 70 years. This predominance of PVD lower-extremity cases in the field of amputation surgery is a development of quite recent origin. A survey of lower-extremity amputations by Doctor Jan Hansson in Sweden for the period 1947-1962 documents this fact. During this period, the incidence of lower-extremity amputations in individuals under 60 years of age remained constant at an annual rate of 4 to 5 per 100,000 population. In males over 60, the rate rose from 34 per 100,000 in 1947 to 129 in 1962. In females over 60 years of age, the amputation rate increased from 24 to 62 per 100,000 during this period. Doctor Hansson expressed the opinion that these rates would continue to rise over the coming years. One cannot but surmise that these rapidly increasing rates of lower-extremity amputations in individuals over 60 years of age are but a reflection of the change in the character of our older aged population that has occurred over the past four decades as a result of the dramatic advances that have been made in the prevention, care, and management of disease. Before the advent of insulin, it is doubtful that many diabetics lived long enough to develop gangrene of a lower extremity. Countless numbers of people are now reaching the age of 65 or older with medical conditions which, forty years ago, would have been fatal at a much earlier age. Ischemic amputations of the lower extremity formed an insignificant part of the workload of prosthetic facilities forty years ago. This is borne out by