Aims. Limb salvage for diabetic foot infections often require multiple
procedures. Some patients will eventually end up with below knee
amputation (BKA) when all limb salvage attempts fail. We seek to
study the patients’ ability to return to normal life, functional
status, prosthesis usage and perspectives on multiple limb salvage
procedures that culminated in BKA to review if they would undertake
a similar path if their situation was repeated. Patients and Methods. A total of 41 patients who underwent BKA between July 2011 and
June 2013 were reviewed. They were divided into primary and creeping
(prior multiple salvage procedures) amputations. The Barthel’s Index
(BI) and the Reintegration to Normal Living Index (RNLI) were used.
A questionnaire was used to identify whether the patient would undergo
the same multiple attempts at limb salvage again if faced with the
same problem. Results. All patients had a good mean BI of 14.2 (3 to 20) and RNLI of
73.2 (31 to 100). There was no difference in prosthesis usage, BI
and RNLI between both groups. We found that 16 (94.1%) out of 17
patients with creeping amputation would undergo the same multiple
salvage procedures if given a similar option. Conversely, only 15
(62.5%) patients with
