Prosthetic use: correlation of clinic team and ergonomic laboratory in predicting its success

A group of 92 patients with lower limb amputations were evaluated in an effort to determine whether an appropriate clinical decision to prescribe a prosthesis could be made without using elaborate evaluation testing. The assessments were made independently by a clinic team and by an ergonomic laboratory, each applying its own criteria for predicting successful prosthetic use. The high correlation between the two areas indicated that the ergonomic laboratory made no additional contribution toward the decision to supply a patient who had no complicating features with a prosthesis. Nineteen patients had significant ST depressions during exercise testing and of these, nine died within one year. Two patients with no ST segment depressions died within one year.