Failures in through-knee amputation.

Long-term results over a period of more than 10 years give evidence of the superiority of the through-knee compared to the above-knee stump. However, failures in through-knee stumps before, during and after operation and pitfalls in prosthetic fitting are still too frequent. They are mostly due to errors because the peculiarities of the stump and the prosthetic management are not recognised. This paper emphasizes frequent causes of failure in the selection of the level of amputation, the operative technique, post-operative treatment and prosthetic rehabilitation in order to reduce the complication rate.