Segmental transcutaneous measurements of PO2 in patients requiring below-the-knee amputation for peripheral vascular insufficiency.

An accurate method is needed to quantitate the healing potentials of the possible sites of amputation in dysvascular limbs. We evaluated the segmental transcutaneous measurements of PO2 in thirty-seven patients who required below-the-knee amputation because of peripheral vascular insufficiency. The fifteen patients with below-the-knee transcutaneous PO2 values of forty millimeters of mercury or more had no delay in healing of the below-the-knee amputation. Seventeen of nineteen patients with values of more than zero but less than forty millimeters of mercury had healing at the below-the-knee level, in two after local revision. The three patients who had below-the-knee values of zero required re-amputation above the knee.