Objective

Evaluate the quality of life and psychological state of the lower limb amputees.

Patients and methods

Prospective study on the lower limb amputees followed at the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation department of the University Hospital of Monastir.

The variables analyzed were epidemiological, clinical with an assessment of the patients quality of life using the quality score of life “Short form 36” (SF_36) and a psychological evaluation by the score “Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale” (HAD).

Results

Our population consisted of 101 patients, including 16 (15.8%) initially device-fitted and 58 (57.4) who had their devices during the study period. The mean age was 61.3 years with a male predominance (75.2%). The vascular etiology of amputation was the most frequent (37.6%). The most represented level of amputation was transtibial (73.3%).

The SF36 physical component score was initially more affected than the mental component with an average score of 32.53 PCS and MCS average 36.84. These scores were significantly higher among patients initially fitted. For 74 device-fitted patients, we observed a statistically significant improvement after device MCS scores ( P = 0.001) and PCS ( P = 0.002), as well as all the elementary scores of the Sf-36 score. This improvement was slightly higher for the mental component. The HAD-A score was 9.28 with the presence of anxiety symptoms in 47 patients (46.6%). The HAD-D score was 10.26. Forty-five patients (44.5%) had depressive symptoms. For the fitted patients there was a statistically significant difference between the HAD-A scores ( P = 0.002) and HAD-D ( P < 0.001) from the initial psychological state and those after being fitted.

Discussion/Conclusion

The impairment of quality of life, anxiety and depression are very common among amputees. The device allows a statistically significant improvement of the HAD and the physical and mental components of the SF 36.