The British journal of surgery
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Multicenter Study
Epidemiology of lower extremity amputation in centres in Europe, North America and East Asia.
This study was established to enable a comparison of lower extremity amputation incidence rates between different centres around the world. ⋯ Apart from the Navajo centre, differences in the known prevalence of diabetes could not account for the differences in overall incidence of amputation. Differences in the prevalence of peripheral vascular disease are likely to be important, but this and the role of other factors, including availability of health care, are worthy of further investigation.