Assessment of Causes of Amputation Through Five Years

Aims: Amputation refers to removing a limb’s defective or useless portion. Although it is an awful solution, amputation may be the only strategy that can save lives. This study was done to identify the causes of amputation and build a database for assessing healthcare. Instrument Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study, which excluded cases of congenital amputations, included all cases admitted to Ghazi Al-Hariri Hospital for surgical specialties in the center of the medical city of Baghdad from January 2016 to January 2021. Findings: A total of 19744 patients were hospitalized in the orthopedics and trauma department, with 12381 male patients (63%) and 7363 female patients (37%). Also, 748 cases (4% of all cases) had their limbs amputated, of whom 499 cases (67%) were male and 249 cases (33%) were female. For both sexes, the average age was 46 years. The average hospital stay was close to five days. Lower limbs made up 677 cases (91%). However, the difference between these sides was too tiny to be taken into account. Trauma affected 269 patients (36%), complications from diabetes mellitus were found in 232 patients (31%), peripheral vascular ischemia affected 205 patients (27%), malignant tumor cases affected 32 patients (4%), infection was found in only three patients (0.4%), COVID-19 and rheumatologic affected only two patients (0.26%), and burn and chronic ulcers that did not respond to treatment affected just one patient (0.13%). Conclusion: Male gender and younger ages were found with lower limb disease. Both sides were affected equally. COVID-19 may present as an ischemic limb.