Civil War Leg Amputation

These musket balls caused massive injuries when they struck a target because the bullet often flattened on impact.

Civil war leg amputation. From from the medical textbook Handbook of Surgical Operations U. 4 They also found that amputations done days later were seldom as effective in preventing death. After completing numerous amputations after a battle doctors had another problem.

During the Civil War surgeons performed two types of amputation. Although their records are incomplete Confederates most likely performed around the same number of amputations. The survival rate for amputations done in the first 24 hours after an injury was very good with only 25 mortality.

Amputations were the chief mode of major surgery before and during the Civil War. The American Civil War was a tumultuous and scary time. For more than a year he suffered repeated infections in the wound and poor health until Surgeon Edwin Bentley amputated the limb.

Handbook of Operative Surgery 1863. The closer the amputation was to the chest and torso the lower the chances were of survival as the result of blood loss or other complications. Amputations became widespread during the Civil War and the removal of a limb was the most common surgical procedure in battlefield hospitals.

Amputation being performed in front of a hospital tent Gettysburg July 1863. Physical wounds amputation phantom limb sensation and pain. Afterward the doctor would roll the cuff back down sew it together and create a stump.

Its often assumed that amputations were performed so often because surgeons at the time were unskilled and simply resorted to procedures bordering on butchery. Accompanying this was the loss of life and limb. Civil War Amputation Procedures.