Do I need rehab after the operation?
After each thigh amputation, rehabilitation treatment is necessary so that patients learn to cope with their new life situation. In addition to help with the care of the fresh surgical wound, prosthesis adjustment and gait training are essential components of the rehabilitation stay. The aim of the rehabilitation treatment is to enable the patients with their new disability to live an independent life to the extent that they can. Psychological support for processing the loss of a body part also takes place here.
What does the prosthesis fitting look like?
The preparation for a prosthetic fitting begins in the hospital. If the healing of the scar is timely and without irritation, a first appointment with an orthopedic technician can be arranged after consultation with the doctor. First of all, the prosthetist makes a plaster cast of the stump from which the first prosthesis socket is made.
This corresponds to the individual shape of the residual limb and includes the remaining leg. There are many different techniques, from which the most suitable one is selected after a detailed discussion. The first prosthesis that a patient receives is a temporary, a so-called interim prosthesis, since the residual limb can still change significantly in the initial period after the amputation, for example by increasing or decreasing the residual limb volume.
Once the wound healing is complete and the residual limb no longer changes, a final definitive socket is fabricated. Various parts are adapted to this definitive socket in order to create the optimal prosthesis for each individual case. There are also many possibilities and variations that can be tried out and optimized in cooperation with the prosthetist.
What level of care is provided after a transfemoral amputation?
Although a transfemoral amputation is a major break in the life and everyday life of every person affected, one does not automatically receive a fixed level of care. The application for this must be made and depends on the individual case. Accompanying symptoms before the amputation depend on the underlying disease.
If the cause is a vascular occlusion, pain often occurs. In addition, the leg may feel cold and stiff, as it is no longer supplied with sufficient blood. Patients with diabetes mellitus, on the other hand, usually do not feel any pain because they have suffered nerve damage due to the diabetes, which prevents pain signals from being transmitted.
Infections are manifested by the classic signs of inflammation such as pain, redness, overheating, swelling and loss of function. Tumors bring along very different symptoms. They can be painful, but do not have to be. Sometimes they are conspicuous by restrictions of movement.Often these are also random findings that do not cause symptoms and are discovered by chance during an examination.
