Assessment of frequency of below knee amputation after conservative management in tertiary care hospital of Pakistan.

Abstract

Objective: To determine the frequency of patients who need below knee amputation after conservative management presenting in the tertiary care hospital of Pakistan. Study Design: Observational Cross-sectional study. Setting: Azra Naheed Medical College/CMA Teaching and Research Hospital Lahore Pakistan. Period: One year from 31^st March 2022 to 28^th February 2023. Methods: After approval from the Institutional review board of Azra Naheed medical College, the sample was raised using non-convenience probability sampling. Sample size of 145 cases is calculated. Patients were diagnosed as diabetic patients if their random blood sugar was more than 200 mg/dl on initial presentation.  All patients underwent surgical examination by a senior consultant surgeon. Conservative patients were assessed on weekly and monthly basis in OPD. The data was entered and analyzed through SPSS version 24. Results: The minimum age of patient underwent BKA was 38 years old, and the maximum age was 64 years old, resulting in a mean age of 52.41 + 6.88 years. that most of the amputations were done in group of 41 to 50 years of age (33.3%) while age groups of 30 to 40 years and 51 to 60 were managed conservatively (72.2%) and (72.8%) respectively. Conclusion: Frequency of need for below knee amputation in patients presenting with diabetic foot in our tertiary care hospital managed conservatively is not very high and in agreement with local studies, however, the variation of magnitude still exists due to various effect modifiers.