Zadovoljstvo oseb po amputaciji zgornjega uda s protezo
Satisfaction with prosthesis after upper limb amputation

slovenian

2015

volume 14, issue 1

Guidelines as Topic   Hip Fractures   Quality of Life   surgery   upper limb amputation   upper limb prosthesis   user satisfaction

Univerzitetni rehabilitacijski inštitut RS – Soča
(Obvezni izvod spletne publikacije)

Background: One of the options for rehabilitation after upper limb amputation is prosthetic fitting. Rehabilitation with a prosthesis will only be successful if the person accepts and uses the prosthesis. The experience of our specialised rehabilitation team is that satisfaction varies greatly among prosthesis users after upper limb amputation. Hence, we wanted to ask the users what are they satisfied with and what they are not satisfied with regarding prosthesis provision, and thus determine to which factors should we pay particular attention in the future. Methods: The study involved adults after unilateral upper limb amputation (with amputation at the level of wrist or higher) who had been using the prosthesis for at least two years. We designed a questionnaire and used it to interview the participants. The questionnaire consists of 6 questions and 8 four-point rating scales. Results: We recruited 19 participants (5 women and 14 men), aged 50 years on average (range from 20 to 84 years). We found out that the users ratings were the highest for donning and doffing procedures and prosthesis' looks, and the lowest for venting of the socket, usefulness of the prosthesis in daily activities and the prosthesis' functionality. Only four participants rated venting as god, the majorit rated it as poor. Nearly one half of the participants were not satisfied with the prosthesis' durability; comfortableness of the socket was rated as good or excellent by more than two thirds of the participants (only two rated it as poor). Two users were not satisfied with the weight of their aesthetic prosthesis, and so were four of the six users of a body-powered prosthesis, as well as the user of an electric prosthesis. Conclusion: The persons after upper limb amputation included in our study were the most satisfied with the donning and doffing procedures the looks of the prosthesis, and the least satisfied with the venting and the usefulness of the prosthesis in daily activities.

18.04.2017