Management of an Entrapped Patient with a Field Amputation

Publication date: Available online 6 November 2017
Source:The Journal of Emergency Medicine
Author(s): John C. Bunyasaranand, Erasmo Espino, Kelli A. Rummings, Gregory M. Christiansen
BackgroundEmergency surgical amputations are rare and resource-intensive lifesaving interventions. Most emergency medical services (EMS) lack a formal protocol to manage these high-risk but low-occurrence events. There has been limited attention in the EMS community to address this issue. Without a literature-based approach, the EMS community has been offered little guidance on managing surgical field amputations.Case ReportA 38-year-old man was terminally entrapped below the waist in an industrial auger. As a last resort, the decision to initiate a field amputation was made. We outline an adaptive strategy to address the circumstances surrounding this entrapment scenario.Why Should an Emergency Physician Be Aware of This?A carefully preplanned protocol may lead to increased overall survivability for entrapped patients requiring emergent field amputation. Based on the lessons learned from the outcome of this case, previous cases, and a literature review, we have devised a simplified planning tool in the form of a "LIMB" mnemonic to aid EMS services in developing their own traumatic amputation protocol (TAP). "LIMB" is an acronym for: Lists of resources and equipment, Initiate TAP checklist, Manage the extrication, and Bring the patient in. The LIMB mnemonic may also be used as a checklist to assist EMS personnel in performing a field amputation. We offer rescuers a starting point to develop their own TAP capable of being executed in their own rescue environment.



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