Guidelines from the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense have highlighted the need for an interdisciplinary care team across all phases of post-amputation rehabilitation, including prosthetic training. In a recent paper, a team of researchers from the Minneapolis VA Health Care System and the Veterans Health Administration noted that while occupational therapists have traditionally taken a role in rehabilitation and prosthetic training in patients after upper-limb amputations, there were fewer guidelines for evaluation and treatment of people with lower-limb amputations.
With that in mind, they used standard phases of occupational therapy to describe a framework to meet the complex rehabilitation needs after lower-limb amputation. The framework focused on patients’ cognitive and mental health, activity level, accessibility and safety, and pain, with clinical practice guidelines through each stage of the healing process.
The authors used their clinical experience and the available literature to structure occupational therapy clinical practice around the phases of lower-limb amputation rehabilitation, including acute management, healing, prosthetic training when applicable, and long-term management. Addressing each domain allows the patient to take an active role in supporting their own health, well-being, and participation, and they were selected to build upon shared knowledge and common practice among occupational therapy practitioners, according to the authors.
The paper, “Occupational therapy as integral partner in lower limb amputation rehabilitation: A clinical commentary,” was published in Occupational Therapy in Health Care.
