Level of lower limb amputation in relation to etiology

The Danish Amputation Register and the nationwide National Patient Register are presented. Based upon the code numbers in the WHO classification system (ICD), 4 etiology groups i.e. vascular insufficiency, diabetes mellitus, malignant neoplasma and trauma were extracted. The purpose was to analyse the relationship between level of amputation (i.e. foot, below-knee, through-knee, above-knee and hip) and etiology (cause of amputation). The material represents all such amputations in Denmark during the period 1978 to 1989 (n = 25.767). The number of amputations because of vascular insufficiency with and without diabetes mellitus decreased over the period studied. The number of tumour and trauma amputations seemed unchanged. There was a significant reduction in the number of amputations at proximal levels (above-knee) for vascular insufficiency with and without diabetes mellitus and in the trauma group. No such change was found regarding tumour amputations. There was a characteristic pattern in the distribution of level respectively of etiological factors for each etiology group and for each level of amputation.