Lower limb trauma: limb salvage or an early amputation?

Trauma is the leading cause of death and disability in the first four decades of life all over the world (1). This causes serious social and economic costs (1, 2). The ultimate goal of the trauma care is to return the patient to an independent and productive life as soon as possible. Trauma surgeon’s role is critical in establishing a better quality of care, because he or she are responsible for taking the patient through all phases of the “trauma disease”, from resuscitation, into the reconstruction and rehabilitation phase (3). Unfortunately, recovery following injury is a complex problem. Combined arterial and skeletal extremity injuries associated with higher risk of the limb loss are the best example of this. This article provides a general overview on the challenges related to the management of the lower limb trauma and specifically looks at the issues surrounding the damage control orthopaedics, limb salvage and early amputation.