Description
This is part of the lower part of an amputated leg; anteriorly and posteriorly the muscular tissue is
degenerate and largely calcified. The bones and joints themselves appear intact.
History
Thirty eight years before, this man had suffered bilateral fractures of the femur in a motor
vehicle accident. As a complication he developed an ischaemic contracture with gangrene of the
left foot which led later to a lumbar sympathectomy. In the affected leg he had recurrent chronic
osteomyelitis which in the year before amputation led to an abscess in the left calf; at this time the
muscles of the calf were atrophied and extensively calcified; there was no movement of the ankle
or toes but there was pulse demonstrable in the dorsalis pedis. The persistance of a discharging
sinus in the upper calf and the general condition of the leg led to amputation.