Amputees have Better Quality of Life than who had Limb Salvaged in Grade Iii B and Grade Iii C Crush Injury

Abstract

Background: Trauma to the extremities represents one of the most common injury patterns seen in emergency medical and surgical practice. As extremity injuries are evaluated, each of four functional components (nerves, vessels, bones, and soft tissues) must be considered individually and together. If three of these four elements are injured, the patient has a “mangled extremity”. In this article we are going to assess the quality of life of patients who had crush injury to the leg. Methods: Both retrospective and prospective study of 60 patients who had Grade III b and Grade IIIc open fractures of the lower limb. Study was done in Sri Ramachandra Medical College between Jan 2012 and Jan 2015. Patients who had crush injury to their lower limbs with Mangled Extremity Severity Score of seven and above were included. We followed Gustillo and Anderson classification system for fractures classification. Mangled Extremity Severity Score for all the patients were calculated. SF12 quality of life questionnaire was used to assess the patients during follow-ups. Results: The Mean PCS (physical component summary) score in SF 12 quality of life questionnaire for Amputation group and Limb Salvage group were 39.05 and 29.91. The Mean MCS (mental composite summary) score for Amputation group and Limb Salvage group were 43.10 and 36.05. Conclusion: The quality of life of patients who underwent amputations was statistically significant when compared to patients who had their limb salvaged. Keywords: Amputation, Limb salvaged, Crush injury, Mangled extremity, Open fracture