Maximizing physical activity in athletes with amputations

Medical care of athletes with disabilities parallels medical care for nondisabled athletes. Limb deficiencies, whether congenital, traumatic, or secondary to disease, confer certain challenges to sports participation. Although sports medicine research for people with disabilities lags behind sports medicine research for the nondisabled, there are nonetheless important points to be learned from the available body of published literature in this area. This article reviews the pertinent research literature and supplements it with clinical wisdom that may assist physicians, coaches, prosthetists, and trainers to help keep athletes with limb deficiencies active. The relevant epidemiologic, biomechanical, medical, and psychological issues are discussed.