Researchers in the United Kingdom studied the impact of gender, amputation level, and diabetes status on prosthetic fit rates following transtibial or transfemoral amputations in subjects with peripheral arterial disease. They found that those with diabetes mellitus were younger than those without, and more of them had transtibial rather than transfemoral amputations. Further, although both age and amputation level are good predictors of being fit with a prosthetic limb, successful limb fit rates for those with diabetes mellitus were no better than for those without it, the study concludes.
The researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of the Scottish Physiotherapy Amputee Research Group dataset and established a cohort of 1,735 people with peripheral arterial disease; 64 percent were men (n = 1112) and 48 percent (n = 834) had diabetes mellitus. Those with diabetes mellitus were younger than those without, with a mean age of 67.5 years and 71.1 years, respectively. The transtibial amputation to transfemoral amputation ratio was 2.33 in those with diabetes mellitus, and 0.93 in those without.
A total of 41 percent of those with diabetes mellitus were successfully fit with a prosthetic limb compared to 38 percent of those without diabetes mellitus. Male gender positively predicted fitting with a prosthetic limb at transtibial and transfemoral amputation levels. Bilateral amputations and increasing age were negative predictors of fitting with a prosthetic limb. Diabetes mellitus negatively predicted fitting with a prosthetic limb at the transfemoral amputation level. Mortality was 17 percent for the cohort and 22 percent when the amputation was at the transfemoral level.
The study was published online on February 5 in Prosthetics and Orthotics International.
