Return to work following amputations

Abstract

One of the objective of the amputees’ rehabilitation is to restore their functioning, which includes their return to work. Few recent studies have examined this issue. We have observed the activity of the Comète-France network which promote early return to work in rehabilitation centers in France, since 2005 to 2014. The process includes four stages: evaluation (1), construction of the project (2), project completion (3) and follow-up (4). The activity of Comète-France, since 2005 to 2014, concerns 46 174 patients (stage 1), including 923 amputees (2%). In total, 263 of them (28.7%) return to work (stage 3). This rate depends on general factors (age, gender, and educational level), factors related to impairments and disabilities (amputation level, reason for amputation, co-morbidity, and mobility limitations), rehabilitation, factors related to prosthesis and factors related to work. These results, according with the literature, merits prospective study to confirm the rate of amputees returning to work (what's the outcome of the others patients?) and to observe the factors influencing this rate throughout the entire process. It seems also interesting to research the added value of this process.