Download or read book A History of Limb Amputation written by John R. Kirkup and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-05-27 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book opens with a unique historical review of natural amputations due to congenital absence, disease, frostbite, animal trauma, and to punishment and ritual. The advent of surgical amputation and its difficulties form a major part of the book, summarising the evolution of the control of haemorrhage and infection, pain relief, techniques, instrumentation, complications, prostheses, results and case histories. Alternative procedures, increasingly important in the last two centuries, are also debated.