Gas gangrene, diabetes and amputations of upper extremities

Purposes: The aim of the current study was to evaluate epidemiological data on amputations of upper extremities. Methods: The main causes of upper extremity amputations performed in the period from January 1998 to January 2008 in Hospital de Base, São José do Rio Preto were retrospectively evaluated in a descriptive and quantitative cross-sectional study. Data, including the age of the patient, gender and the reason for surgery, were obtained from hospital records identified by the international classification of dis-eases (ICD) code for amputation. Results: A total of 2919 amputations were performed in the period of this study with only 23 involving the upper extremities; thus 22 patients were included in this study as one was submitted to amputation of both arms. Fifteen patients (65.21%) were male with ages that ranged between 18 and 84 years old (mean = 41.6 years old). Seven patients (34.79%) were women with ages from 24 to 87 years old (mean = 58.8 years old). The causes for amputation were: accidents (14), gas gangrene (4), malignant neoplasms (3), arterial thrombosis (1) and unidentified cause (1). Conclusion: Gas gangrene of the upper ex-tremities is associated to diabetes mellitus which highlights the severity of the disease. (www.actabiomedica.it)