What is a residual limb?
Why do people call it a stump?
What are the types of amputations people have?
What does a BK prosthesis mean?
What is an AK prosthesis?
What is a unilateral prothesis?
What is a bilateral prosthesis?
We will cover all of this and more in this blog post.
New Phrases To Consider
At this point in time, after the amputation has occurred, you will also start to hear new phrases from the medical professionals and fellow amputees that talk with you. We will bring up the most common ones here here on our site and as stated earlier, we will revise and improve the book along the way to help future amputees. We will also have a FAQ section at the end of this book and define more of the phrases as we understand them.
Some of these new phrases you will start to hear are in reference to the remainder of your limb(s). From now on, the remaining portion of your leg, hand or arm for example, is referred to in the medical community as your “residual limb”. This is the term we prefer to hear and use.
Just to prepare you though, some people you encounter may refer to your residual limb as a “stump”, to be really honest.
Could a better term be used to describe the remainder of your limb? Absolutely!
We believe more appropriate terms exist in the prosthetic community and this will be one of the last times you hear us refer to the residual limb as a “stump”.
Somebody you run into will inevitably use the term “stump” though. At least now you are a little bit more prepared for when that happens. Perhaps you could be the one to help them see the more appropriate terms that exist, such as “residual limb”. Just a thought to consider.
Types of Amputations
We can include many commonly used terms throughout the website blog posts. For example, most people who have an amputation and are reading this book will probably have a residual limb that is, below the knee. You might hear someone say the term “bk” or “bka”, which stands for below knee, or below knee amputation. It is possible that you might hear your prosthetist refer to the amputation as a “transtibial amputation” too. But the common term you will hear though is BK, or BKA.
Likewise, an “AK” or “AKA”, for example is an acronym that would refer to an “above knee”, or “above knee amputation”, and so on. There are many acronyms used in the medical community and this is not just resigned to the professionals that work in the prosthetic community.
Many upper extremity amputees reading this might feel as though we are not paying respect since we have only discussed bk and ak amputations thus far. This is not true. Nor is it our intention. We are just going with the most common types of amputations at first. Your journey as an upper extremity amputee is significant and we will never say otherwise.
As we have just mentioned, by no means are the terms “BK” or “AK” all inclusive. That much is obvious. You will see an illustration below which shows the most common amputation sites. Hopefully, it will bring a little more clarity to you.
Another set of very common terms is bilateral or unilateral. When it comes to an individual who has had a one sided aka, that is a unilateral amputee. Below is a picture of a unilateral above knee amputees prosthesis.
A bilateral then would be an amputee who has an amputation, for example, someone who has a bilateral bka. A picture of a bilateral bka is shown in the picture below.