Limb Salvage and Amputation Prevention

When infection, gangrene or peripheral arterial disease threatens a limb, time is tissue.

Diagnosis consists of rapid lab work-up (CRP, pro-calcitonin), contrast CT angiography or MR angiography for revascularization planning, and bedside vascular probes.

Symptoms: blackened toes, foul-smelling discharge, deep plantar abscess, rest pain or critical ischaemia.

Treatment follows Dr Srinivas’s “3 Rs” protocol—Revascularise . Remove infection, Reconstruct. He works with vascular surgeons to restore flow by angioplasty or bypass, performs staged debridements until margins are clean, balances tendons and fills defects with local flaps or free muscle grafts, then off-loads with custom footwear. This multidisciplinary pathway has reduced major-amputation rates in his unit by > 80 %.