Arterial occlusive disease in amputee patients: assessment with the Doppler ultrasound flowmeter and correlation with rehabilitation.

The vascular status of 14 below-knee (BK) amputee patients and 12 above-knee (AK) amputee patients who had undergone amputation for arterial occlusive disease was assessed with the Doppler ultrasound technique. Ten healthy subjects were investigated as a control group. The ankle-arm pressure index in the sound leg and thigh-arm pressure index in the stump were classified in 4 grades. Rehabilitation was graded according to the amputee patients' ability to use their prostheses. The vascular condition of the BK amputees was generally better than that of the AK amputees. The vascular condition of the stump in both groups was better than that of the sound leg. A good correlation was found between prosthetic rehabilitation and the vascular condition of the sound leg, but not with that of the stump. It is suggested that amputation removes the most severely affected part of the lower extremity and the so-called sound leg thus becomes the restricting factor in rehabilitation.