Abstract
The effects on tissue oxygenation of postoperative adjuvant oxygen have been studied in a group of 20 patients undergoing below-knee (BK) amputation for vascular disease. Ten patients received no therapy, the remainder receiving 28% oxygen for 48 hours following surgery. The results showed that the trancutaneous p02 in the amputation flaps fell significantly by some 20 mmHg (p<0.01) following surgery and that this fall was prevented by the use of adjuvant oxygen. The fall was not observed in the non-amputated limbs. Tcp02 took almost two weeks to reach its pre-operative levels in the amputated limbs.
The effect on stump healing of adjuvant oxygen therapy was investigated in a randomized controlled trial in a series of 39 patients undergoing BK amputation. There were 22 patients in the control (untreated) group and 17 in the treated group (adjuvant oxygen for 48 hours). In the treated group 14 patients healed primarily and three amputations failed. In the untreated group 14 limbs healed primarily, one secondarily and there were 7 failures. The pre-operative transcutaneous values in the stumps which failed (26 mmHg±14) was significantly lower (p<0.005) than in those which healed (40 mmHg±9). The mean pre-operative Tcp02 in the patients in whom healing occurred in the treated group (35 mmHg±10) was significantly lower (p<0.001) than the mean pressure observed in the untreated group (44 mmHg±9).