English

Abstract

BACKGROUND Low back pain (LBP) is a very common and disabling condition experienced by individuals during their lifetime. However, the causes of low back pain may vary and include musculoskeletal impairments, biomechanical abnormalities, gait deviations, primary medical causes, and deleterious or excessive activity.1 The different levels at which amputation is done in the lower limb are hip disarticulation, transfemoral amputation (above knee), knee disarticulation, transtibial amputation (below knee), ankle disarticulation and transmetatarsal amputation. Lower limb amputation (LLA) is known to cause LBP and may result in functional disability in lower limb amputees. Different parameters such as level of amputation, use of prosthesis etc. affect low back pain in amputees. The purpose of this study was to find out the prevalence of low back pain and its correlation with functional disability in patients with lower limb amputation. METHODS This is a community based observational study. 41 participants were included in the study. Data was collected using a questionnaire including the demographic information of each participant, pain assessment and revised Oswestry low back pain disability (RODQ) questionnaire to assess functional disability. RESULTS The study revealed that the prevalence of the reported back pain in the studied sample was 60.9 %. In 60 % of the patients, the Oswestry disability index depicted moderate disability. CONCLUSIONS The study concludes that low back pain is a significant problem in lower limb amputees. Several factors such as level of amputation, age, time since amputation put the lower limb amputees at a risk of developing back pain. Back pain intensity is important to assess the back pain related functional disability. KEY WORDS Amputation, Low Back Pain, Disability, Prosthesis