In-Hospital Morbidity and Mortality of Traumatic Lower-Extremity Amputations

Traumatic lower-extremity amputations often result in complications and surgical revisions. The authors report the in-hospital morbidity and mortality of traumatic lower-extremity amputations at a metropolitan level I trauma center for a large rural region and compare below-knee (BK) vs higher-level amputation complications. They retrospectively reviewed 168 adult patients during a 10-year period (2005 to 2015) who had a traumatic injury to the lower extremity that required an amputation. Main outcome measurements included amputation level, complication rates, intensive care unit (ICU) admission rates, length of stay, total trips to the operating room (OR), and Injury Severity Score (ISS). A total of 95 patients had through-knee/above-knee (TK/AK) amputations, and 73 patients had BK amputations. The majority of injuries occurred in the non-urban setting. The TK/AK group had higher ICU admission rates (76% vs 35%, P<.0001), longer overall hospital length of stay (22.0 vs 15.5 days, P=.01), more total OR trips (6.5 vs 5.0, P=.04), and higher ISS (17.0 vs 11.5, P<.0001). A complication was experienced by 64% of all patients during the initial hospitalization. The TK/AK group had higher complication rates than the BK group, including wound infection, pulmonary embolus, rhabdomyolysis, compartment syndrome, and death. Patients with TK/AK traumatic amputations have a greater burden of injury with higher complication rates, increased ICU admissions, increased length of stay, and increased ISS and require more return trips to the OR compared with patients with BK amputations. [Orthopedics. 2020;43(6):e561-e566.].