amputation involving a child

Amputations in Kids

January 18, 2013 | Edward Smith

Among children, 60 percent of amputations are congenital in nature and 40 percent are acquired due to an injury. Most of these patients require some kind of prosthetic device more so than children who’ve sustained congenital amputations. These acquired amputee children attend specialized child amputee clinics. Acquired amputees are due to trauma most of the time but in a few cases, the limb loss was secondary to disease. The worst offenders are power tools and heavy machinery, followed by automobile accidents, explosions, gunshot wounds and railroad accidents. In the 1-4 age groups, the most common causes of amputation are lawnmowers and household accidents.

Of diseases causing amputation, the most common cause is malignancies, vascular malformations and neurogenic disorders. More than 90 percent of the time, acquired amputations involve just one extremity. In over 60 percent of the cases, the lower limb is the limb affected. Males have more amputations than females at a ratio of 3:2. This is because males tend to engage in activities that are more hazardous than females.

Water Crafts and Amputations

January 16, 2013 | Edward Smith

Water sports are becoming more popular around the world. People are spending more time racing boats, water skiing, scuba diving and skin diving. Injuries because of boat propellers are also becoming more frequent. One study looked at the ten year period from 1963-1973 and studied nine cases of injury by boat propeller. Some resulted in an amputation as a result of the propeller itself. Others needed surgical amputation due to mangled extremities.

Injuries on boats are not simply a national occurrence. The below examples are listed not for shock value but to illustrate the need to use caution when on or near boats. These were recent news items from 2012 and 2013 illustrating the mechanism of injury due to water sports and/or while on a watercraft.

Injuries to Children from Trains

January 14, 2013 | Edward Smith

Children have a higher likelihood of being injured or killed from trains than adults. They like to play on train tracks and have a lesser ability to detect the speed of a train coming towards them. Their bodies are more frail than adult bodies and the forces on the bodies from the train are great.

One study looked at the pattern of sustained injuries in kids who are injured in train tracks and train accidents. It was a retrospective review of those patients who showed up on two different trauma registries for the years 1984 through 1994. The patients attended a level I trauma center in a single metropolitan area. A total of 17 patients were treated for injuries at the level I trauma center. Those who were injured in a car that was struck by a train and those that were pronounced deceased at the scene were excluded from the study.

Finger Amputations

January 9, 2013 | Edward Smith

Finger amputations may sound small but they really cause a lot of changes in the way the patient performs certain activities, such as punching the buttons on a phone or using a keyboard. This is why the surgeon will attempt to put the finger back on if it is severed from the hand.

When a finger is initially severed, the bystander should wrap the amputated finger in moist, cool gauze. The finger should not be immersed in water because it can become waterlogged. Simply use a paper towel if you have no medical gauze. Put the finger on ice with a Ziploc bag. Do not use dry ice for this part of the process. If there will be an attempt to reimplant the finger, there should be immediate medical attention with a surgeon who can put arteries, veins and nerves back together. The time from amputation to reimplantation should be less than 12 hours.