Restoration of mobility.

At the beginning of inpatient rehabilitation, the doctors and the patient should decide together on the objective, the further course of treatment, and the planning. For instance, elderly patients wish mostly to retain their independence, social integration and to stay in their own homes, while younger amputees find it important to carry on their familiar private and working lives with as few limitations as possible. An extremely important issue for all those in rehabilitation is the provision of a prosthesis and learning how to handle their replacement limb.

Before initiating the provision of a prosthesis, the rehabilitation potential, i.e. the amputee's existing or foreseeable potential, must be decided on. The factors that more or less strongly affect the success of rehabilitation include: age, comorbidities and social factors. However, the objectives of rehabilitation can also be a painless residual limb or adequate mobility in a wheelchair if a decision against a prosthesis has been taken.