[Forefoot gangrene and infra-crural bypass: simultaneous amputation]

Patients presented for amputation mostly have chronic limb ischaemia caused by atherosclerosis, with signs of severe arterial insufficiency including rest pain, non-healing skin lesions, ulceration or gangrene. Foot infections, especially in diabetic patients, are often multimicrobial, deeply invasive and frequently require aggressive measures, like debridement and drainage or partial open forefoot amputation in addition to broad-spectrum antibiotics, in patients with critical limb ischaemia and limited necrosis and forefoot gangrene, distal bypass surgery is the treatment of choice. The main question is whether amputation should be performed simultaneously or in a secondary stage. Our own experience deals with 342 femorocrural and femoropedal bypass grafts for the treatment of critical limb ischaemia. The results showed no significant difference in graft patency between crural and pedal grafts. Clinical factors like diabetes mellitus, poor distal run-off and site of the distal anastomosis had no adverse effect on the functioning and patency of the graft. In this series we found that in diabetic patients significantly more amputations were required because of persistent foot infection. Since in these patients amputation was performed in a secondary stage, we changed our policy to simultaneous amputation. After completion of the bypass, closure and coverage of all the wounds, the gangrenous part is amputated. In case of deep, wet or infectious gangrene of the forefoot, an open transmetatarsal amputation is performed. Using this approach we have further increased limb-salvage and especially the number of usuable limbs.