First Treatment Found for Rare Disease That Can Lead to Amputation

• Ernie Mundell HealthDay Reporter
• April 4, 2024
• Full Page

There's a glimmer of hope for people afflicted by a rare artery-hardening disease than can lead to amputation.

An existing medication called etidronate appears to help slow the buildup of calcium in arteries that's a hallmark of the illness, which is called arterial calc...

Spinal Cord Stimulation Eases Pain, Boosts Function for People With Prosthetic Legs

• Ernie Mundell HealthDay Reporter
• December 15, 2023
• Full Page

People who've lost a leg due to injury or disease are often plagued by what's known as phantom limb pain -- discomfort arising in the area, despite the absence of the limb.

Now, researchers report that people who wear a prosthetic leg after amputation may have that pain ...

Got PAD? Income, Race Could Affect Outcomes Such as Amputation

• Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter
• April 20, 2023
• Full Page

Patients with a common vascular disease that causes blockages in their leg vessels had both worse symptoms and outcomes if they were Black or poor, new research finds.

The study from Michigan Medicine looked at more than 7,000 patients with peripheral arterial disease (...

Doctors Convert Veins Into Arteries to Spare Patients Amputations

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• March 30, 2023
• Full Page

Cynthia Elford had recently lost her left leg to type 1 diabetes, after a sunburned big toe turned nearly black and forced an amputation.

Now, Elford was being told the same thing was happening in her right leg.

“I went to clip the toenail on the big toe of my ri...

Archaeologists Discover Evidence of Surgical Amputation Performed 30,000 Years Ago

• By Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter
• September 12, 2022
• Full Page

Skeletal remains of a young adult discovered in a remote cave in Borneo appear to be the oldest known case of surgical amputation.

Australian and Indonesian researchers estimate the bones are at least 31,000 years old. It appears that the young adult lost his foot and lo...

Medicare's Free Wellness Visit Can Prevent Diabetes Amputation

• By Robert Preidt HealthDay Reporter
• June 20, 2022
• Full Page

Annual wellness visits covered by Medicare reduce diabetes patients' risk of amputation by more than one-third, a new study finds.

"Our results confirmed our hypothesis that Annual Wellnes...

A 'Bionic' Arm That Feels Like Her Very Own

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• September 3, 2021
• Full Page

Former Marine Cpl. Claudia Mitchell can hold a banana or a water bottle in her left hand without squishing it as she opens it.

She can use her left hand to help cut peaches for a pie. She can hold someone's hand without squeezing too hard, and she can grab her makeup bag...

Diabetes-Linked Amputations: Your Race, State Matters

• Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter
• August 18, 2021
• Full Page

Poorly controlled diabetes can lead to amputations of toes, feet or legs, though it isn't inevitable.

But your race and where you live might play a big part in whether amputation is your fate if you are diagnosed with the blood sugar disorder, new research suggests.

Alligator Attack Nearly Cost This Firefighter Dad His Arm

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• June 23, 2021
• Full Page

You might not believe it, but Florida firefighter Carsten Kieffer was incredibly lucky when a 12-foot alligator leapt into his boat and chomped down on his right forearm.

Just about no one else thought so, and that went double for Kieffer: Both main bones in his arm were...

Injuries Shoot Up After Fireworks Laws Loosened in West Virginia

• Robert Preidt
• July 3, 2020
• Full Page

West Virginia loosened fireworks sales rules in 2016. And since then, the state has seen a 40% boom in fireworks-related injuries, researchers say.

The regulation change made it easier for people to buy Class C fireworks such as Roman candles, bottle rockets and ...

Obamacare Linked to Fewer Leg Amputations for Minorities

• Robert Preidt
• June 18, 2020
• Full Page

There's been a significant drop in diabetes-related lower leg amputations among non-white patients in states that expanded Medicaid under Obamacare, a new study finds.

About one-third of people with diabetes develop a foot ulcer, which is the most common cause of foo...

To Prevent Injuries, Give Your Kids a Pass on Cutting the Grass

• Robert Preidt
• May 10, 2020
• Full Page

Asking your child to mow the lawn is a risky proposition, a new study suggests.

About 9,400 American kids are injured by lawn mowers each year, and mowers cause 12% to 29% of all traumatic amputations among them, according to the American Academy of Orthopaed...

Heart Attacks, Strokes Are Declining Among People With Diabetes

• Serena Gordon
• May 1, 2020
• Full Page

An Australian study has good news for people with type 2 diabetes -- fewer people with diabetes are having heart attacks and strokes compared to 20 years ago.

Heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular complications have declined in the general population, too....

High-Tech Prosthetic Arm Melds With Patient's Anatomy

• Amy Norton
• April 30, 2020
• Full Page

A new "mind-controlled" prosthetic arm can allow amputees to regain a sense of touch and move through their daily lives more easily, researchers report.

The success story involves just three patients in Sweden. But all have lived with the artificial limb for three to...

'It's Like You Have a Hand Again': New Prosthetic Gets Closer to the Real Thing

• Robert Preidt
• March 5, 2020
• Full Page

A brain-controlled robotic arm gives users precise hand control that enables them to do more complicated things intuitively than they could with a conventional prosthetic, researchers say.

"It's like you have a hand again," said study participant Joe Hamilton, who lo...

U.S. Veterans With Blocked Leg Arteries Seeing Better Results

• Robert Preidt
• February 25, 2020
• Full Page

Fewer U.S. veterans are having leg amputations or dying due to serious blockages in leg arteries, a new study finds.

These blockages are called critical limb ischemia (CLI). They can cause severe leg pain, wounds that don't heal and poor quality of life, according to...

AHA News: Research Opens New Avenues to Reduce Foot, Toe Amputations

• February 20, 2020
• Full Page

Emerging research may help doctors devise better ways to prevent some of the tens of thousands of amputations unrelated to traumatic injury that occur in the U.S. each year.

Diabetes is the leading cause of nontraumatic lower limb amputations, including of the toe a...

Toes Become Fingers in the Brains of 'Foot Painters'

• Serena Gordon
• September 11, 2019
• Full Page

If you use your feet like hands from birth, the brain will create a different "map" of the toes that's more like the one it has for the fingers, new research reveals.

That's the case with Tom Yendell and Peter Longstaff, two foot artists in the United Kingdom who we...

New Prosthetic Leg Can Feel Touch, Reduce 'Phantom Limb' Pain

• Steven Reinberg
• September 9, 2019
• Full Page

After losing a lower leg, Savo Panic received a prosthetic limb that helped restore movement. But prostheses are imperfect, and he suffered tremendous "phantom" leg pain.

Now, European scientists say they've developed a technology that restores natural feeling and im...

Small Vessel Disease Leaves Patients Vulnerable to Leg Amputation

• Robert Preidt
• July 8, 2019
• Full Page

No matter where it occurs in the body, microvascular disease ups the risk of leg amputation, a new study finds.

Microvascular disease damages very small blood vessels.

Researchers analyzed data from more than 125,000 U.S. veterans who were followed for an a...