13 - EPIDEMIOLOGIC STUDY: INCIDENCE AND COMPLICATIONS OF TRANSFEMORAL AMPUTATION OF TRAUMATIC CAUSE

Abstract

Amputation is a word derived from Latin, which means the complete or partial removal of a body limb from different sources such as vascular, neuropathic, traumatic, tumoral, infectious and congenital. In Brazil, the incidence of amputations is estimated to be 13.9 per 100,000 inhabitants/year and in the USA the number is 4.9 per 1000 born alive babies, while this number is four times as high when we talk about people over 65 years old. As shown in books, the second cause of amputation is the traumatic problems and car accidents and labor accidents among others are strictly associated with them. This article aimed to identify the incidence, as well as the main complications associated with the transfemoral amputation of traumatic cause. An epidemiologic study was accomplished, in the FAG'S Clinic, interviewing 31 patients. A questionnaire composed by 31 questions, 8 subjective ones and 23 objective ones was applied during one month. Nine of these questionnaires were selected because they fulfilled the requirements to be included in the research. In the research, the results showed that 29 % of the interviewees were of traumatic cause, and most of them were men (88,8%), aging around 46 years old, and the prevalent alteration in the stump was the phantom pain (33,3%). As it was previously supposed, our average numbers are in agreement with what is seen in the literature.