Lakeland Amputation Prevention Program (LAMP)
The Lakeland Amputation Prevention Program is a partnership with Lakeland Vascular Institute for immediate vascular referral and intervention to save your leg. he Lakeland Amputation Prevention Program's mission statement is to reduce the number of lower extremity amputations in nationally by 25% and to improve the quality of life for our fellow citizens who are afflicted with wounds and complications of diabetes and peripheral arterial disease. They will accomplish these goals by educating professionals, students, patients, and the community through advanced evidence based methods and through community outreach
Central Florida Limb Salvage Alliance goal is to have a team approach to wound care and limb salvage with the community that will facilitate essential care to those at risk for amputation, heart attack, stroke as well as pain and suffering.
Below are a collection of activities..
The Lakeland Amputation Prevention Program is a partnership with Lakeland Vascular Institute for immediate vascular referral and intervention to save your leg. he Lakeland Amputation Prevention Program's mission statement is to reduce the number of lower extremity amputations in nationally by 25% and to improve the quality of life for our fellow citizens who are afflicted with wounds and complications of diabetes and peripheral arterial disease. They will accomplish these goals by educating professionals, students, patients, and the community through advanced evidence based methods and through community outreach
Central Florida Limb Salvage Alliance goal is to have a team approach to wound care and limb salvage with the community that will facilitate essential care to those at risk for amputation, heart attack, stroke as well as pain and suffering.
Below are a collection of activities..
Save A Leg, Save A Life Foundation
Local Chapter Strives to Reduce Amputations
Cindy Skop | The Ledger
By Robin Williams Adams
The Ledger
Published: Sunday, August 1, 2010 at 12:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, August 2, 2010 at 12:07 a.m.
LAKELAND | Too many people develop life- or limb-threatening leg problems, such as wounds that don't heal or clots that form deep inside their veins.
TO LEARN MORE
Contact Ken Maroney, program director of Lakeland Regional Medical Center's Center for Wound Care, about the local chapter of the Save a Leg, Save a Life Foundation. He can be reached at ken.maroney@lrmc.com or 863-284-1700.
A growing number are overweight and many have diabetes. Add those factors to an aging population, and lack of awareness about alternatives to amputation, and you know why Dr. Desmond Bell was in Lakeland last week.
The co-founder of Save a Leg, Save a Life Foundation came at the urging of wound-care specialists to help them start a foundation chapter here.
"It's open to anyone who has been touched by either the fear of amputation or a wound that hasn't healed," Bell said,
One of the nonprofit group's goals is to reduce the number of partial or total leg amputations.
"More than 50 percent of amputations have not had medical tests done," said Bell, a Northeast Florida podiatrist who focuses on limb salvage.
He attributes excessive numbers of amputations, in large part, to lack of awareness by patients and doctors about alternatives.
"They just took one look and assumed it had to come off because there was black tissue on the foot," Bell said.
Another SALSAL goal is to improve the quality of life for people who are afficted with non-healing wounds and complications from diabetes and peripheral artery disease, often known as PAD.
Poor circulation, complications from diabetes and infection are some of the reasons wounds don't heal well. PAD occurs when narrowed blood vessels prevent enough blood from flowing to the legs.
Programs to educate doctors and the public on alternatives to amputation are needed, Bell said, as are community screenings and educational programs to find people at risk of diabetes and PAD.
Doing that through an organization like SALSAL "puts medical and nonmedical people on the same table," said Dr. Jeffrey Karr, a Lakeland podiatrist.
"There are patients who are falling through the cracks," said Dr. Fernando Loret de Mola, a Watson Clinic family medicine doctor who is medical director of Lakeland Regional Medical Center's outpatient wound-care center.
Not all patients can avoid having a leg amputated, Loret de Mola said, but wound care centers have many success stories of healing.
Bell said he helped start the national foundation four years ago out of frustration and a desire to help people avoid amputation.
"There's so much technology out there that's being under-utilized," he told about a dozen people at an organizational meeting Wednesday.
Advanced BioHealing, which makes a bioengineered skin substitute used at the Lakeland center, hosted the event.
People who have legs amputated may end up in assisted-living facilities or nursing homes more rapidly than they would otherwise.
"These people are often socially isolated," Bell said. "They're depressed."
But, if SALSAL members are effective, fewer could reach that point.
Bell said he hopes to see a 25 percent reduction in amputations in each community with an active chapter. There are more than 40 nationwide.
[ Robin Williams Adams can be reached at robin.adams@theledger.com or 863-802-7558. Read her blog at robinsrx.blogs.theledger.com. Follow on Twitter at ledgerROBIN. ]
Group Sponsoring Program at LRMC With Hope of Reducing Amputations
By Robin Williams Adams
The Ledger
Published: Tuesday, January 4, 2011 at 11:44 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, January 4, 2011 at 11:44 p.m.
LAKELAND | Local residents who have established a chapter of Save a Leg, Save a Life will sponsor a free, public program on vascular disease during a Jan. 12 meeting at Lakeland Regional Medical Center.
Related Links:
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Kidney Disease Event is Today in LRMC Auditorium
Kidney Disease Event Saturday in Lakeland Regional Medical Center Auditorium
LRMC Bans Latex Balloons Over Allergy Reaction Risk
LRMC Honors Philanthropists
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Guest lecturers from the Lakeland Vascular Institute will discuss vascular disease and healing, said Dr. Jeffrey Karr, a Lakeland podiatrist who is one of the local chapter's founders.
Its mission is to reduce the number of amputations in the community by outreach, education, and meetings involving the medical and nonmedical community.
Dan Rush, one of the nonmedical people working with Karr to spread the word about SALSAL, is doing it in part because his own leg is one of the ones already saved.
Rush, 60, was diagnosed five or six years ago with diabetes.
The diagnosis, made during testing while he was in the hospital for treatment of a burn on the bottom of his right foot, was a shock.
But it made him determined, when a cut on his left foot one year ago wasn't healing right, to make sure he wouldn't lose a limb to complications of diabetes. He sought treatment, which is how he came in contact with Karr.
"My lesion is healed now, but a lot of diabetics don't end up with that outcome," said Rush, regional director for Starbucks in an 86-store region that includes Polk County. "They lose a toe here, a toe there, sometimes a leg."
In addition to reducing amputations, another SALSAL goal is improving the quality of life for people afflicted by nonhealing wounds and complications from diabetes and peripheral artery disease, often known as PAD.
Poor circulation, complications from diabetes and infection are among the reasons wounds don't heal well. PAD occurs when narrowed blood vessels prevent enough blood from flowing to the legs.
"To prevent amputations, the standard of care is a team approach," Karr said.
He said patients need to be assessed carefully for circulation problems, bone infections, nutritional deficiencies, diabetic control and compliance and such overall health concerns as smoking, obesity and infection.
Once he does that, Karr said, he can make appropriate referrals to other doctors for treatments as needed.
"Recognition and prompt treatment of arterial vascular disease is one of the most important factors in preventing amputation," Karr said, adding that wound-specific treatment alteratives are available in offices and at wound-care centers.
Bartow, Heart of Florida and Lakeland Regional medical centers, along with Lake Wales Medical Center, have hyperbaric and wound-care centers.
Information about SALSAL will be put on local Starbucks' community boards. Its next meeting will be 6 p.m. Jan 12 in LRMC Room B201, next to the surgical waiting area.
[ Robin Williams Adams can be reached at robin.adams@theledger.com or 863-802-7558. Read her blog at robinsrx.blogs.theledger.com. Follow on Twitter at ledgerROBIN. ]
Last Modified: Tuesday, January 4, 2011 at 11:44 p.m.
LAKELAND | Local residents who have established a chapter of Save a Leg, Save a Life will sponsor a free, public program on vascular disease during a Jan. 12 meeting at Lakeland Regional Medical Center.
Related Links:
LRMC Sees Progress in Nationwide Effort to Fight Infection
Kidney Disease Event is Today in LRMC Auditorium
Kidney Disease Event Saturday in Lakeland Regional Medical Center Auditorium
LRMC Bans Latex Balloons Over Allergy Reaction Risk
LRMC Honors Philanthropists
More Stories
Guest lecturers from the Lakeland Vascular Institute will discuss vascular disease and healing, said Dr. Jeffrey Karr, a Lakeland podiatrist who is one of the local chapter's founders.
Its mission is to reduce the number of amputations in the community by outreach, education, and meetings involving the medical and nonmedical community.
Dan Rush, one of the nonmedical people working with Karr to spread the word about SALSAL, is doing it in part because his own leg is one of the ones already saved.
Rush, 60, was diagnosed five or six years ago with diabetes.
The diagnosis, made during testing while he was in the hospital for treatment of a burn on the bottom of his right foot, was a shock.
But it made him determined, when a cut on his left foot one year ago wasn't healing right, to make sure he wouldn't lose a limb to complications of diabetes. He sought treatment, which is how he came in contact with Karr.
"My lesion is healed now, but a lot of diabetics don't end up with that outcome," said Rush, regional director for Starbucks in an 86-store region that includes Polk County. "They lose a toe here, a toe there, sometimes a leg."
In addition to reducing amputations, another SALSAL goal is improving the quality of life for people afflicted by nonhealing wounds and complications from diabetes and peripheral artery disease, often known as PAD.
Poor circulation, complications from diabetes and infection are among the reasons wounds don't heal well. PAD occurs when narrowed blood vessels prevent enough blood from flowing to the legs.
"To prevent amputations, the standard of care is a team approach," Karr said.
He said patients need to be assessed carefully for circulation problems, bone infections, nutritional deficiencies, diabetic control and compliance and such overall health concerns as smoking, obesity and infection.
Once he does that, Karr said, he can make appropriate referrals to other doctors for treatments as needed.
"Recognition and prompt treatment of arterial vascular disease is one of the most important factors in preventing amputation," Karr said, adding that wound-specific treatment alteratives are available in offices and at wound-care centers.
Bartow, Heart of Florida and Lakeland Regional medical centers, along with Lake Wales Medical Center, have hyperbaric and wound-care centers.
Information about SALSAL will be put on local Starbucks' community boards. Its next meeting will be 6 p.m. Jan 12 in LRMC Room B201, next to the surgical waiting area.
[ Robin Williams Adams can be reached at robin.adams@theledger.com or 863-802-7558. Read her blog at robinsrx.blogs.theledger.com. Follow on Twitter at ledgerROBIN. ]