Trauma & Critical Care

Diabetic lower limb amputation remains the serious outcome of diabetic foot complications. It has been consistently shown that the best results of diabetic stump care occur when clinical pathway/an inetrdisciplinary approach is taken toward treatment. The aim of the study is to determine the effect of implementing a clinical pathway on healing of post lower limb amputation for

diabetic patients. The study was carried out in the vascular unit, Department of Surgery at Alexandria Main University Hospital and Private Alexandria Vascular Center (AVC) using a quasi experimantal research design. The study’s subjects included 40 diabetic patients undergoing first exposure to unilateral lower limb amputation and free from vital organ failure. Study’s subjects are randomly divided into control and study groups (20 patients each). Three tools were used for data colection: Preoperative diabetic lower limb amputation assessment, clinical pathway variances observation checklist and patient satisfaction scale. The study’s results imply satisctical significance diffrenece in favor of the study group regarding wound healing during the second to the sixth week in post operative follow-up period. The results also imply that the study group has significantly higher satisfaction level as compared to the

control one. In conclusion, diabetic patients undrewent lower limb amputation exhibited significantly better post clinical pathway health outcomes comparing with control one. The study recommended to apply the clinical pathway for diabetic patients undergoing lower limb amputation rather than the hospital routine care.