Perioperative management of traumatic limb amputations due to civilian trauma: current practice and future directions

Traumatic limb amputations are serious injuries. They require urgent multidisciplinary management and emergency surgical intervention to save life and, where possible, preserve limb function. It is therefore vital that perioperative management follows established evidence-based principles to optimise outcomes. In recent years a vast quantity of research on traumatic amputations in the military setting has been published, but civilian injuries, which often have strikingly different mechanisms, have been neglected. This article reviews existing information on epidemiology, pathophysiology, perioperative management strategies, outcomes and future directions in the field.