Journal article
Falls in a Young Active Amputee Population: A Frequent Cause of Rehospitalization?
Military medicine, Vol.180(10), pp.1083-1086
10/2015
DOI: 10.7205/MILMED-D-14-00450
PMID: 26444471
Abstract
Falls occur in up to 50% of amputees within a single year of their operation and up to 40% of these falls result in injury. However, there is a lack of data evaluating falls in a young, active amputee population despite an estimated 58% of persons living with an amputation being under the age of 65. The authors evaluated an amputee population (n = 393) with a mean age of 25.53 years. Overall incidence, prevalence, fall characteristics, and risk factors were calculated for falls resulting in rehospitalization. An incidence of 1.92 per 1,000 person years with a prevalence of 2.04% was found with 87.5% occurring within the first 6 months following definitive amputation. Of the patients rehospitalized, 75% required at least 1 surgical procedure. Infectious complications had the most significant morbidity requiring a mean of 5 operative procedures. Those that delayed evaluation (mean = 13 days) vs. those that presented 0 to 1 day from a fall were significantly more at risk of an infectious complication (p = 0.03). This study is the first to report such a relationship, and emphasizes the need for at-risk patients to seek early medical attention as this may minimize the risk of infection and obviate the need for surgical intervention.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Falls in a Young Active Amputee Population: A Frequent Cause of Rehospitalization?
- Creators
- Shaun M Felcher - Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, San Antonio Military Medical Center, 3851 Roger Brooke Drive, Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234Daniel J Stinner - Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, San Antonio Military Medical Center, 3851 Roger Brooke Drive, Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234Chad A Krueger - Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, San Antonio Military Medical Center, 3851 Roger Brooke Drive, Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234Jason M Wilken - Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, San Antonio Military Medical Center, 3851 Roger Brooke Drive, Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234Donald A Gajewski - Center for the Intrepid, Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, San Antonio Military Medical Center, 3851 Roger Brooke Drive, Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234Joseph R Hsu - Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, San Antonio Military Medical Center, 3851 Roger Brooke Drive, Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Military medicine, Vol.180(10), pp.1083-1086
- DOI
- 10.7205/MILMED-D-14-00450
- PMID
- 26444471
- NLM abbreviation
- Mil Med
- ISSN
- 0026-4075
- eISSN
- 1930-613X
- Publisher
- England
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 10/2015
- Academic Unit
- Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science
- Record Identifier
- 9984047899802771
Metrics
17 Record Views