Bauer, Irmgard L., and Nagaraja, Vikranth (2024) Travellers with prosthetic limbs, a neglected population. A perspective on what travel health practitioners need to know. Tropical Diseases, Travel Medicine and Vaccines, 10. 14.

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Abstract

Background: The benefits of travel for the wellbeing of people of all ages and abilities are well known, though travellers with prostheses have so far been excluded. Limb loss, due to trauma, vascular disease, cancer, or infections requires a prosthesis for cosmesis and functionality. The life-changing event of losing a limb and the considerable psychological adjustment to accept an altered body image influence rehabilitation and self-management as well as the participation in social activities, such as sport and travel. The challenge of travel lies not only in transferring practical impediments encountered at home to another location; familiar coping strategies may require unexpected adjustments. After presenting background information on limb loss and prostheses, the purpose of this paper was to review literature on health advice for travellers with prosthetic limbs.

Method: All major data bases were searched for peer-reviewed literature using a variation of keyword combinations around travel and prosthetics. Relevant journals were searched individually, and selected authors and university departments contacted. No evidence-based results were obtained. The search then moved to grey literature including documents from relevant organisations, professional bodies, government websites, manufacturers, airlines, prosthetic/physiotherapy clinics, sport organisations to approaching amputees, including veterans and athletes, directly.

Result: The list of collated travel advice for people with artificial limbs relates to 1) trip preparation, 2) packing (especially considering the mechanical and/or electrical requirements of the prosthesis), 3) travelling by plane as the most covered mode of travel, and 4) navigating airports and airport security, which may be used by travel health practitioners while awaiting evidence-based guidelines.

Conclusion: This is the first paper on travel with a prosthetic limb in any field, including travel medicine. Therefore, travel health practitioners have no evidence-based guidelines at their disposal required for high-quality care for this neglected population. Preliminary recommendations for clinical practice, advice for required updates in education, and suggestions for urgently needed research are provided to replace current hints and tips with evidence so that travellers with prostheses are no longer ‘out on a limb’.

Item ID:	83496
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2055-0936
Keywords:	Travel health, artificial limb, amputee, disability, body image, airport security, travel barriers, travel guidelines.
Copyright Information:	© The Author(s) 2024. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
Date Deposited:	28 Aug 2024 23:56
FoR Codes:	32 BIOMEDICAL AND CLINICAL SCIENCES > 3299 Other biomedical and clinical sciences > 329999 Other biomedical and clinical sciences not elsewhere classified @ 50% 35 COMMERCE, MANAGEMENT, TOURISM AND SERVICES > 3508 Tourism > 350806 Tourist behaviour and visitor experience @ 50%
SEO Codes:	20 HEALTH > 2004 Public health (excl. specific population health) > 200403 Disability and functional capacity @ 90% 11 COMMERCIAL SERVICES AND TOURISM > 1104 Tourism services > 110499 Tourism services not elsewhere classified @ 10%
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