(34.5%) of patients had a physical Sickness Impact Pro
file
(SIP) subscore typical of the general population of similar age
and gender.
5
Furthermore, out of those who worked before
their injury, only 58% returned to work 7 years later. Even
worse, of those who return to work, patients are limited in their
performance 20 to 25% of the time.
6
These data are similar to
what has been seen in the military population following severe
combat extremity injuries. In a retrospective cohort study of
324 Service Members who underwent amputation or limb sal-
vage following a combat-related extremity injury, Doukas et al
reported that at an average follow-up of 38.6 months only
43.7% had returned to work and 19.9% had pain interfering
with daily activities.
7
These data demonstrate that similar
challenges are seen long-term in patients, whether civilian or
military, with severe lower extremity injuries.
THE NEED FOR A MULTIDISCIPLINARY
APPROACH
In assessing outcomes of patients that sustained high-energy
lower extremity trauma, O
’Toole et al showed that surgeons
and patients rarely agree on outcomes, as infrequently as
≤25%, which highlights the complexity of synthesizing out-
comes based research.
8
Perhaps, surgeons should not just
focus on treating the injury, but treating the individual
patient as well. As Cannada and Jones highlighted in their
review of the LEAP Study Group
’s findings, a patient’s per-
sonality is not signi
ficantly influenced by changes in the
patient
’s life circumstances, i.e., the significant trauma they
just experienced.
9
However, as eluded to by Levin et al, fail-
ure to recognize the difference between treating an illness
and a disease may be one explanation for the vast differ-
ences in outcomes seen following injury.
10
Knowing this,
could it be possible to predict which patients are going to do
worse and intervene early to optimize their outcome?
A vitally important lesson learned is establishing realistic
expectations for pain management, speci
fically noting that
patients with severe lower extremity injuries may heal their
bone and soft tissue injuries, but pain will frequently per-
sist.
11
–13
In most cases, the bone heals, and, in some cases,
there are complications. However, there remains a large
degree of uncertainty as to why some patients do so much
better than others, when the bone healed in good alignment
and there were no postoperative complications. It has been
shown that
“negative mood,” specifically anxiety, plays an
important role in the persistence of acute pain and both pain
and depression correlates with patient satisfaction in those
who have sustained severe lower extremity trauma.
14,15
When evaluating predictors of disability and pain following
musculoskeletal injuries, Vranceanu et al found that cata-
strophic thinking at 1 to 2 months postinjury was the sole
signi
ficant predictor of pain at rest, pain with activity, and
disability at 5 to 8 months.
16
The physician must understand
and recognize the impact that these factors can play in a
patient
’s rehabilitation process to optimize their outcome.
However, one of the most important advances in pain
management during the recent con
flicts can easily be summed
up in the phrase
“multimodal pain management.” In addition
to the use of various intravenous and oral pain medications,
the bene
fits of advanced regional anesthetics, delivered
through continuous peripheral nerve catheters, were quickly
realized. In many patients with severe extremity injuries or
amputations, these were placed before transport back to the
United States. These peripheral nerve catheters can provide
the analgesia needed to make smooth transitions between the
often, frequent, interval debridement and irrigations until the
de
finitive surgery can be safely performed, while minimizing
the need for intravenous or oral narcotic pain medication.
12
As mentioned by Pasquina and Shero, rehabilitation needs
to start in the acute care setting. The Amputee Patient
Care Program, which encourages collaboration among vari-
ous services, to include pain management, encouraged this
to happen.
13
These studies highlight the fact that some patients may
need more than just an orthopedic surgeon, following their
fracture to union, to maximize their outcome. Archer et al
found that 85% of patients reported a need for at least one
vocational, behavioral health, or other support service fol-
lowing severe lower extremity trauma, and 32% had an
unmet need over the course of the
first year.
17
The highest
need unmet was for behavioral health and vocational ser-
vices. Patients with a perceived unmet need have worse out-
comes.
17
The military has done well in meeting patients
’
needs based on holistic care models, e.g., the Armed Forces
Amputee Patient Care Program and newer interdisciplinary
programs for combat injured undergoing limb salvage.
11,13,18
–22
Quality data come from the LEAP Study Group, speci
fi-
cally informing orthopedic surgeons on outcomes related to
high-energy musculoskeletal trauma.
5,23
When comparing
amputation to limb salvage, the authors found no difference
in SIP scores at 2 and 7 years. The SIP assesses patients
’
dysfunction through everyday behavior capturing the physi-
cal, mental, and social aspects of health-related function.
Another important
finding from the LEAP Study Group’s
research was the identi
fication of several predictors of poor
outcome, regardless of group (amputation vs. limb salvage)
to include a poor social support network and low self-
ef
ficacy.
5,23
This reinforces the importance of an individu-
alized interdisciplinary approach to treating patients with
severe extremity injuries. This is especially important when
counseling patients on possible courses of action as sur-
geons cannot rely on current lower-extremity injury sever-
ity scoring systems because they have been shown not
to be predictive of functional recovery of patients who
undergo reconstruction.
24
The best available data from the military are from the Mil-
itary Extremity Trauma Amputation/Limb Salvage study,
which found better functional outcomes in patients with
amputation compared to limb salvage.
7
However, when inter-
preting these results it is important to look more closely
MILITARY MEDICINE, Vol. 181, November/December Supplement 2016
27
Improving Outcomes Following Extremity Trauma