Syme's amputation in adults: a long-term review

Area of Science:

• Orthopedics
• Surgical Outcomes
• Podiatric Surgery

Background:

• Syme's amputation is a surgical procedure for foot and ankle conditions.
• Assessing its long-term success and failure rates is crucial for patient care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the failure rate of Syme's amputation.
• To evaluate long-term functional outcomes based on etiology.
• To identify factors influencing successful Syme's amputation outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective study of two patient populations.
• Analysis of failure rates (requiring revision) for traumatic and dysvascular lesions.
• Long-term functional assessment of 55 patients with various etiologies.

Main Results:

• Failure rates were 29% for traumatic and 41% for dysvascular lesions.
• 73% of patients achieved good long-term function.
• Ideal stump morphology was present in only 22% of cases.

Conclusions:

• Functional outcomes of Syme's amputation depend more on prosthetic fitting than surgical technique.
• Syme's amputation is not recommended for dysvascular lesions due to high failure rates.