An accurate method is needed to quantitate the healing potentials of the
possible sites of amputation in dysvascular limbs. We evaluated the
segmental transcutaneous measurements of PO2 in thirty-seven patients who
required below-the-knee amputation because of peripheral vascular
insufficiency. The fifteen patients with below-the-knee transcutaneous PO2
values of forty millimeters of mercury or more had no delay in healing of
the below-the-knee amputation. Seventeen of nineteen patients with values
of more than zero but less than forty millimeters of mercury had healing at
the below-the-knee level, in two after local revision. The three patients
who had below-the-knee values of zero required re-amputation above the
knee.