Data on 121 primary above-knee amputations and 12 stump revisions
performed on a population of nonambulatory elderly psychiatric inpatients
showed that the overall morbidity and mortality rates compared favorably
with those in previously published reports on other groups of patients who
received the same type of amputations, despite the precarious health of the
psychiatric patients. By use of spinal anesthesia; meticulous attention to
the prevention, early detection, and prompt treatment of wound
complications; and identification of patients at high risk, this often
desperately needed operation can be performed with good results.Abstract Teaser