A Demographic Study of Lower Limb Amputees in a North Indian Tertiary Rehabilitation Center

Abstract

Introduction: Rehabilitation of amputees is a challenging in a developing country like India because in order to provide better rehabilitative facilities and to formulate specific rehabilitation guidelines, efficient record keeping and proper analysis of data are essential. Records of different epidemiological parameters of amputees are rarely found in Indian medical literature, which warrants an investigation for the same. Aim and objective: To assess the age, sex, and cause-wise distribution of the amputees in the study group and to correlate the incidence of revision amputation with that of bad stumps and the level and cause of amputation. Materials and methods: Retrospective data analysis of 132 patients with 141 lower limb amputations above the level of ankle admitted in the inpatient setting from 2015 till 2018 was performed. Upper limb amputees and amputations below the level of ankle were excluded. Results: One hundred and thirty-two patients with lower limb amputations were taken, of which 123 (93.18%) were unilateral and 9 (6.82%) patients were bilateral, with 110 males (83.3%) 22 females (16.66%) overall. In the trauma group, there was a strong preponderance for young males (64.22%) with a mean age of 32.49 ± 12.62 years among unilateral and 26.5 ± 7.78 years. Conclusion: Our study determined that young males are the biggest victims of traumatic amputations, much of it which could be preventable by implementing better road safety measures and avoiding hazardous activities. As there are very limited data available regarding amputee rehabilitation in existing literature, this study will help in future meta-analytical studies to formulate strategies to alleviate the socioeconomic burden of amputations.