Todd, the Barr Foundation’s work has discovered, unfortunately, hundreds of
documented cases of amputees suffering from neuromas.In most cases have
resulted from improper and antiqueded surgical techniques.Such cases seem to
be the norm more so than exceptions, particullary in third world countries
where we find many amputees with exposed tibias, post op!
The Barr Foundation will be commissioning a medical film documentary on the
Ertl amputation proceedure which has been successfully performed to hundreds
of amputees including my father, also a A/K. He too, sufferd many years of
unbearable pain and was told that severing the sciatic nerve was the only
the solution. However, he opted in 1978 to undergo the Ertl procedure as a
revision to his stump and lived many years of pain free mobility. We are
discovering that many amputees A/K ,B/Ks and upper extrementies,suffer this
dilema from amputations that were made 10-20 or more years ago.
Prosthetists are often confronted with the patients belief that it is the
“prosthesis” that creates the pain and a new one would take it away. The
fact is that very few surgeons, vascular and orthopedic, have any current
knowledge of proper amputee surgery or how the correct proceedure can help
minimize such problems in the future.
The teachng film will document the procedure so that others maybe aware of
its benefits.
It will take the amputee from amputation surgery to prosethestic fitting and
physical rehab.
A film starring the doctor,the prosthetist and the physical therapist.The
dream team!!
Anyone having knowledge of a surgical film company that can professionally
produce this project, or a modern hospital that would donate discount the
cost of the facilties to us, please us know!
We most likely will be filming in Southern California next month.
Tony Barr
www.oandp.com/barr
—– Original Message —–
From:
To:
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 1999 2:04 PM
Subject: A/K neuroma
> I am currently seeing an A/K amputee who has a large neuroma stemming from
> his sciatic nerve. He is able to walk fine with a walker, but when he
tries
> to fully load the prosthesis while walking with a cane he has excruciating
> pain. I have tried every possible alignment and several socket designs.
The
> best results have come from an Iceross Comfort Plus liner in an iscial
cont.
> socket. Today I went so far as to cut a large hole in the posterior
distal
> to posterior area. This increased the distance he could walk, but
eventually
> the pain returned with the same intensity.
>
> His physician has tried a nerve block and several different types of
physical
> therapy. Nothing has helped more than temporarily. Has anyone encountered
> such a problem? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Todd Norton, CP
>
>
