Experience with the ‘skew flap’ below-knee amputation

Abstract

A review of 353 lower limb amputations over the last 7 years has been performed to assess the results of the skew flap myoplastic below-knee amputation which was introduced in April 1983 because of reported advantages in terms of wound healing and earlier ambulation. Comparing the first 3½ year period with the second, the total number of amputations decreased by 31 per cent. The number of above-knee amputations remained similar in the two periods (82, 62), whilst the number of Gritti-Stokes amputations fell from 79 to 21 (0·001 > P > 0·01). The proportion of below-knee (BK) amputations increased from 50 (23·7 per cent) to 59 (41·5 per cent) (0·01 > P > 0·025). The groups were comparable in terms of previous vascular surgery and co-existing medical conditions. The time to full stump healing was significantly shorter in the skew flap group compared with the earlier Burgess type BK amputation (P = 0·001), and there was a trend to fewer stump failures in the skew flap group. We therefore feel that the skew flap amputation gives superior results to the Burgess BK amputation in terms of healing and a lower complication rate, allowing a higher proportion of BK amputations to be performed. A prospective randomized trial of the two techniques is in hand to determine the accuracy of this hypothesis.