New perspectives on nursing lower limb amputees

New perspectives on nursing lower limb amputees arise from the author's researches into amputee rehabilitation and a summary of other recent research findings. These are dealt with in the context of basic amputee treatment and the nursing process. There is new material on the psychological and neurological sequelae of amputation, the practical problems of loss of a limb and the prosthetic dimension of treatment. The patients' reactions to lower limb amputation were found to vary from intense grief to intense relief, many noting it to be of minor or moderate consequence. The model of sudden and shocking loss is largely incorrect. Attention is drawn to an unrecognized ordinariness which should become part of amputee nursing. Patients have many practical problems. These are social and economic, personal and domestic. The ward environment is unsuited to these needs but, working closely with therapists, nurses can do much to facilitate amputee rehabilitation. The modern purpose of amputation surgery is prosthetic replacement. Nurses should be working with some urgency towards uniting patient and prosthesis. Pain and discomfort are underestimated and research shows them to be a major characteristic of amputation continually and for many years after surgery. A variety of pain syndromes are involved.