Review of Socioeconomic Disparities in Lower Extremity Amputations: A Continuing Healthcare Problem in the United States

Lower extremity amputation is one of the most unfortunate, yet preventable, consequences of uncontrolled lower limb ischemia occurring secondary to diabetes mellitus or peripheral arterial disease. In the United States, racial and socioeconomic disparities are associated with significant differences seen in the incidence and type or level of lower extremity amputation among patients. Due to shifting demographics and the uncertain state of healthcare coverage, lower extremity amputation rates are only projected to increase in the future. Given the potential societal and individual costs associated with the loss of a limb, this review seeks to summarize the recent findings on disparities in the identification, treatments offered, and outcomes of lower limb ischemia in order to elucidate potential interventions at the practitioner and policy levels.

• Publication year

  2018

• Venue

  Cureus

• Publication date

  2018-10-01

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Sociology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.7759/cureus.3418PMID 30542632PMCID 6284870
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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