Buy backpacks, exercise machines, athletic shoes, and more at Fogdog Sports. Further Reading Definition Amputation is the intentional surgical removal of a limb or body part. It is performed to remove diseased tissue or relieve pain. Purpose Arms, legs, hands, feet, fingers, and toes can all be amputated.
Most amputations involve small body parts such as a finger, rather than an entire limb.
About 65,000 amputations are performed in the United States each year. Because of severe trauma to the body part. The blood supply to an extremity can be cut off because of injury to the blood vessel, hardening of the arteries, arterial embolism, impaired circulation as a complication of diabetes mellitus, repeated severe infection that leads to gangrene, severe frostbite, Raynaud's disease, or Buerger's disease. Sixty to eighty percent of these operations involve the legs. Precautions Amputations cannot be performed on patients with uncontrolled diabetes mellitus, heart failure, or infection.