Delivery of cosmetic covers to persons with transtibial and transfemoral amputations in an outpatient prosthetic practice.

Background: Limb loss negatively impacts body image to the extent that functional activity and societal participation are affected. Scientific literature is lacking on the subject of cosmetic covering for prostheses and the rate of cosmetic cover utilization by cover type, gender, amputation level, and type of healthcare reimbursement.

Objectives: To describe the delivery of cosmetic covers in lower limb prostheses in a sample of people with lower extremity amputation.

Study Design: Cross-sectional design

Methods: Patient records from an outpatient practice were reviewed for people who received a transtibial or transfemoral prosthesis within a selected 2-year period.

Results: A total of 294 records were reviewed. Regardless of the amputation level, females were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) more likely to receive a cover. Type of insurance did not affect whether or not a cover was used, but Medicare reimbursed more pull-up skin covers.

Conclusion: There were differences regarding cosmetic cover delivery based on gender, and Medicare reimbursed for more pull-up skin covers at the transtibial level than other reimbursors did. This analysis was conducted in a warm, tropical geographic region of the United States. Results may differ in other parts of the world based on many factors including climate and local views of body image and disability.

Clinical Relevance: Cosmetic covering rates are clinically relevant because they provide insight into which gender is utilizing more cosmetic covers. Furthermore, it can be determined which type of covers are being utilized with greater frequency and which insurance type is providing more coverage for them.