Around the knee high-energy fractures/dislocation may present with vascular injuries. Ischaemia time i.e. the time interval from injury to reperfusion surgery is the only variable that the surgeon can influence. It has been traditionally taught that 6-8 hours is revascularisation acceptable. There are only limited case series that have documented the time-dependent lower limb salvage rate (LSR) or the lower limb amputation rate (LAR). We have conducted a meta-analysis to look at LSR and LAR to inform clinical standard setting and for medicolegal purposes. Two authors conducted an independent literature search using PubMed, Ovid, and Embase. In addition the past 5 years issues of Journal of Trauma, Injury and Journal of Vascular surgery were manually scrutinised. Papers included those in the English language that discussed limb injuries around the knee, and time to limb salvage or amputation surgery. The Oxman and Guyatt index was used to score each paper.Introduction
Methods
