A collaborative study by teams in eight Veterans Administration hospitals in 1967 and 1968 of 182 cases of the immediate postoperative prosthetic fitting technique is reported. One hundred and fifty-four (84%) were "rehabilitation successes"; 14 (7%) healed but could not be rehabilitated and 17 (9%) were healing failures, two of whom died (a mortality of 1.1%). Success in both healing and rehabilitation was greater in the patients with good circulation than in the ischemic ones, all 17 healing failures occurring in the 116 below-the-knee amputations (BKs) done for ischemia. Nevertheless, rehabilitation was accomplished in these ischemic BK operations in 91 instances (78%).