rhroughout the United States and Canada an estimated 80 percent of all major elective civilian amputations result from ischemia. All but a relatively few involve the lower extremity. Significant improvements in below-knee prostheses and important advances in surgical and postsurgical management now allow amputation below the knee in a majority of patients. In a consecutive series of 96 unselect...

This is a report of a 64-year-old man who had undergone a high tibial osteotomy (HTO) 17 years ago of his right knee for medial compartment osteoarthritis; 5 days later, he received a below-knee amputation owing to a missed popliteal artery injury at the time of the HTO. We elected to perform a total knee replacement (TKR) for progressive arthritis of the ipsilateral knee 17 years after the tra...

Pain and pain-related interference with physical function have not been thoroughly studied in individuals who have undergone knee-disarticulation amputations. The principal aim of this study was to determine whether individuals with knee-disarticulation amputations have worse pain and pain-related interference with physical function than do individuals with transtibial or transfemoral amputatio...

Previous studies in the literature have demonstrated higher morbidity and mortality patients undergoing above-knee (AKA) vs below-knee (BKA) amputations. However, very few looked at functional status between these two groups. Using a large national database, we hypothesize that BKA will be more likely to ambulate superior outcomes compared with AKA. All ambulatory major lower extremity amputati...

Levamisole-induced vasculitis is a relatively new entity in people who use cocaine. We describe a 44-year-old woman with a history of cocaine use who presented with a complaint of a painful rash of 2-3 month's duration on her extremities, cheeks, nose, and earlobes. She had not experienced fever, weight loss, alopecia, dry eyes, oral ulcers, photosensitivity, or arthralgia. Examination revealed...

The Dundee Limb Fitting Centre has provided an integrated rehabilitation programme for the amputee since 1965. A review of 1846 primary amputees is discussed. During this period a dramatic change in the above-knee/below-knee (AK/BK) ratio has been achieved with 71% BK and 26% AK occurring in 1989. Over 80% of all amputees, the majority being elderly with peripheral vascular disease, were succes...

Sixty inpatients with diabetic foot were studied prospectively at the Orthopaedic wards of Hospital Kuala Lumpur. Data was evaluated to document the patient profile and the factors that were associated with a major amputation (either above knee or below knee) of the lower limb. Factors that were associated with increased risk of amputation were a low education level, manual occupation, poor foo...

INTRODUCTION We describe the case of a patient who experienced phantom pain that began 42 years after right above-the-knee amputation. Immediately prior to phantom pain onset, this long-term amputee had experienced, in rapid succession, cancer, hemicolectomy, chemotherapy, and thrombotic occlusion. Very little has been published to date on the association between chemotherapy and exacerbation o...