Leg Amputation Procedures

The loss of a limb can be traumatic, especially if it is a leg. Leg amputation can make it difficult to walk, and even if a prosthetic leg is utilized, full motility may never be reached. However, leg amputation can often be a life-saving tool and is necessary in situations ranging from cancer to diabetes. Understanding the procedures and recovery can be helpful for patients who are facing leg amputation.

When to Remove a Leg

• There are many reasons that a doctor may decide to amputate your leg. In some cases, the limb is removed due to severe trauma suffered in a car accident or some other sort of accident. Poor blood flow to the leg can also be a reason to amputate. Poor blood flow does not allow the leg the nutrients it needs to survive. Infections also cause many people to lose their legs. Some infections that enter the blood stream cannot be controlled or stopped; the last resort for stopping an infection in the leg from traveling to the heart is to remove the leg. Cancerous and non-cancerous tumors are yet another reason why doctors choose to amputate. Wounds that do not heal and that increase the chance of infection to the limb which may spread to the rest of the body are also cause for amputation. Finally, severe exposures to heat or cold, such as burns or frostbite, are determinants for amputation, since infection can spread to other areas of the body easily when these conditions occur. Severe exposure often kills the area of the body exposed and those exposed areas must then be removed to prevent further injury.

Procedures

• There are three major procedures commonly used for removing the leg from the body when necessary. One procedure calls for amputating above the knee, while another procedure calls for amputation below the knee. The third type of leg amputation can be done at the hip. The essential goal of the amputation is to ensure that the stump that remains is as small as possible in order to fit a prosthesis. The type of amputation that one is given often depends on the extent of the injury. Often doctors like to try and keep the joints in place. Therefore, a below the knee amputation is preferred whenever possible.

Following Amputation

• Many amputees live relatively normal lives once they adjust to the idea of losing their limb and participate in physical therapy. Physical therapy after losing a limb is essential to learning how to walk again and in reducing the size of the stump immediately after surgery. Several weeks after surgery, once the swelling of the stump has gone down, prosthesis can be fitted to help an amputee walk again. Although it will take months of intense physical therapy, and following doctor's orders concerning stump care and muscle building, it is physically possible to regain almost 100 percent motility.