Tag: amputation
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Gangrene, history, and war
Among the many afflictions that have plagued soldiers in war, gangrene has been one of the most devastating and feared. Caused by the death of tissue because of lack of blood supply or infection, gangrene has haunted military campaigns since antiquity. Hippocrates described the condition, recognizing the blackened, decomposing flesh associated with untreated wounds. In…
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Bioarchaeological findings support ancient representations of surgical limb amputation, part two: Examples from the New World
Peter de SmetNijmegen, Netherlands See Part One for examples from the Old World Case 4: Finger amputation among the ancient Maya Iconography1 The vessel in Fig. 1 is in the collections of the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin (inv.no. IV Ca 15186 a). It was found to contain the phalanges of a little finger together with…
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The grim horrors of the orlop deck
Richard de GrijsSydney, Australia The often awe-inspiring works of art immortalizing historic naval battles usually belie the harsh reality of war. Amidst clouds of billowing, black smoke and the deafening roar of cannon fire, sailors faced the real danger of life-threatening injuries. Injured sailors were carried, dragged, or stretchered to the surgeon’s “cockpit,” a dimly…
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Infectious diseases in the Civil War
Lloyd Klein San Francisco, California, United States The main cause of death during the American Civil War was not battle injury but disease. About two-thirds of the 620,000 deaths of Civil War soldiers were caused by disease, including 63% of Union fatalities. Only 19% of Union soldiers died on the battlefield and 12% later succumbed to…
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Sawing to the bone
This illustration, believed to be the frontispiece of one of the surgical texts by Walter Hermann Ryff, is perhaps one of the more realistic for its time. During this era, anatomical and medical texts tended to be fairly bloodless, portraying flayed human beings in states of repose. Here instead we see a leg amputation with…
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To my friend with diabetes, on losing her foot
Anna KanderIowa City, IA, USA You walk sixty-seven years while childhooddiabetes, against your iron will, poisons your peripheralnerves with sugar, and the muscles of your feet, starvedof circulation, gradually dissolve. Your toes gnarl and curl backward at wildangles, as if aspiring to adorn gargoyles. (You’vealways had a dragon-and-knight heart.) Unruly tendonsdraw themselves into bows, aiming…