Benefits of early prosthetic management of transtibial amputees: a prospective clinical study of a prefabricated prosthesis.

To evaluate the use of an immediate postoperative prosthesis (IPOP) for transtibial amputees, we compared patient outcomes from a prospective clinical study of 19 patients managed with an IPOP with those of a retrospective review of a matched historic control group of 23 patients managed with standard soft dressings. Data were analyzed with the Student's t-test, and significance was set at P = 0.05. The IPOP patients had no surgical revisions, whereas the patients with standard soft dressings had 11. This was a significant difference. IPOP patients also had significantly fewer postoperative complications and shorter times to custom prosthesis than did controls.