Saving Limbs, Changing Lives

It's news that no one wants to hear. “A lot of these patients, they're being told that amputation is their only option,” said Serena Brown, a Surgical Wound Care Nurse Practitioner. However, the experts with Lee Health’s Limb Salvage and Preservation Program can offer new hope for those at risk of amputation. “Statistics show better quality life, less chance of mortality when you can maintain your limbs. So essentially, we're trying to avoid amputations as much as possible,” said Brown. The specialized team combines experts in wound care, diabetes, podiatry, rehab, orthopedics, vascular surgery, and more. “Everyone has a role to play, a specialty, but we're going to coordinate our care in a way that rather than having Dr. A doing this and then handing off the patient to Dr. B and then he's doing that, rather we're all communicating prior to the first surgery, if there's surgery involved, so that we're all optimizing what we're doing to support the other members of the group. And that really is going to lead to best outcomes,” said Limb Salvage Surgeon Dr. Brent Bernstein. This multidisciplinary coordinated team approach combined with new technology allows for better outcomes than ever before. “The ability to go into an extremity and fix a vascular problem without large incisions, that's changed completely over the last 20 years as compared to when I was a resident in the early 90s,” said Dr. Bernstein. “We now can use thermal imaging to visualize an extremity, and we can find very small arteries that we can use to develop a flap to cover a vital structure in the foot as an example.” Working together to help patients maintain mobility, independence, and quality of life. You can learn more by searching for limb salvage on Leehealth.org. View More Health Matters video segments at youtube.com/leehealth Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of health care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For more than 100 years, we’ve been providing our community with personalized preventative health services and primary care to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries. Visit LeeHealth.org