Amputated lower limbs as a bank of organs far ether organ salvage

Aggressive modern technologies have made it possible to attempt Limb salvag e in even the most extreme cases. However, it is imperative to remember tha t prolonged salvage attempts may lead to devastating complications. The dec ision-making is more problematic in patients with bilateral severely injure d mangled lower limbs. In such a case, protocols like the MESS are no longe r valid because of the implications of bilateral amputation. In these rare cases, we use a multi-team approach and modem micro-surgical reconstructive techniques in attempting to salvage at least one of the lower limbs. We pr esent here our experience in six patients with bilateral mangled lower limb s where an amputated limb was the source of "spare parts" for the salvage o f the contralateral limb. In each of the cases, after evaluation and planni ng, the harvesting of the required tissues (including skin, muscle, bone, n erve and blood vessels) from the amputated leg was performed and simultaneo usly, a reconstruction of the contralateral severely injured limb was done. These cases emphasize the importance of modem trauma care, not only the ab ility to treat multiply traumatized patients, but also the capability to ex ecute sophisticated techniques during the acute phase of treatment with max imal cooperation between teams from different disciplines.