XXII. Amputations
The most commonly employed surgical technique during the Civil War was the amputation. Union Army medical records list 29,980 amputations. When amputations performed early in the war that went unrecorded, and Confederate Army amputation estimates are added to the total, it is reasonable to assume that Union and Confederate Army surgeons performed somewhere between 50,000-55,000 amputations during the war.
XXIII. Amputations- Categories
Amputations were placed in one of three categories, depending on how soon after the injury the procedure was performed:
1. Primary- Within 48 hours of the injury (23.9% mortality rate)
2. Intermediary- Three to thirty days after the injury (34.8% mortality rate)
3. Secondary- Thirty-one or more days after the injury (28.8% mortality rate)
XXIV. Amputations- Bodily Area of Injury
Injuries in the Civil War requiring amputation involved these sites on the body:
1. Hand (26.4% of total)
2. Thigh (21.2%)
3. Lower leg (18.4%)
4. Upper arm (18.4%)
5. Forearm (5.9%)
6. Foot (5.1%)
7. Shoulder (2.9%)
8. Knee (0.7%)
9. Ankle (0.5%)
10. Hip (0.2%)
11. Wrist (0.2%)
12. Elbow (0.1%)
XXV. Amputations- Mortality Rates by Type of Procedure
The fatality rate of amputations increased the closer the procedure was performed to the trunk of the victim. The mortality rate of various procedures was as follows:
1. Hip (88% fatalities)
2. Knee (58%)
3. Mid-Thigh (54%)
4. Lower leg (38%)
5. Shoulder (28%)
6. Ankle (24%)
7. Upper arm (24%)
8. Forearm (14%)
9. Wrist (10%)
10. Elbow (7%)
11. Toes (6%)
12. Foot (5%)
13. Fingers (3%)
14. Hand (2%)
XXVI. Artificial Limbs Furnished to Maimed Soldiers
After the war, the federal government and most Confederate states had programs to pay for (or to reimburse maimed veterans for) the purchase of artificial limbs and eyes. These programs could be very expensive- Mississippi in 1866 spent more than 1/3 of its entire state budget for these items. Some state archives have retained records of these purchases (South Carolina, for example, has published a printed record of such purchases).
Tom Pearson, Reference Librarian
Special Collections Department
St. Louis Public Library
1301 Olive Street
St. Louis, MO 63103
Showing posts with label Wounds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wounds. Show all posts
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
KILLED BY THE CURE: CIVIL WAR MEDICINE, PT. VII
XX. Diseases Most Commonly Contracted by Civil War Soldiers
Six million cases of disease were reported to or discovered by Union medical officers during the Civil War. These 15 diseases account for 3,966,828 (66%) of those cases:
Listings provide Disease; Number of Cases; Number of Deaths; and Death Rate.
1. Diarrhea or dysentery---1,585,196---37,794---(2.38 %)
2. Malaria---1,213,685---12,199---(1.01 %)
3. Pneumonia/diseases of respiratory tract---448,923---17,902---(3.99 %)
4. Catarrh/Bronchitis---281,294---1,185---(0.42 %)
5. Gonorrhea---95,833---6---(0.01 %)
6. Typhoid fever---75,368---27,056---(35.90 %)
7. Syphilis---73,382---123---(0.17 %)
8. Measles---67,763---4,246---(6.27 %)
9. Mumps---48,128---72---(0.15 %)
10. Scurvy---30,714---383---(1.25 %)
11. Tuberculosis---13,499---5,286---(39.16 %)
12. Smallpox---12,236---4,717---(38.55 %)
13. Chronic Alcoholism/Delirium tremens---10,253---605---(5.90 %)
14. Diptheria---8,053---777---(9.65 %)
15. Typhus---2,501---850---(33.99 %)
XXI. Anesthesia
Two main forms of anesthesia were used during the Civil War: chloroform and ether. In the 8,900 surgeries reported to the Union Surgeon General in which type of anesthesia was specified, chloroform was used in 76% of cases, ether in 15% of cases, and some combination of chloroform and ether in 9% of cases. Of the 6,784 cases using chloroform that were reported, death attributable to the anesthetic was involved in 37 cases, or 0.5%. 254 surgeries were reported in which no anesthetic was used (3%).
Tom Pearson, Reference Librarian
Special Collections Department
St. Louis Public Library
1301 Olive Street
St. Louis, MO 63103
Six million cases of disease were reported to or discovered by Union medical officers during the Civil War. These 15 diseases account for 3,966,828 (66%) of those cases:
Listings provide Disease; Number of Cases; Number of Deaths; and Death Rate.
1. Diarrhea or dysentery---1,585,196---37,794---(2.38 %)
2. Malaria---1,213,685---12,199---(1.01 %)
3. Pneumonia/diseases of respiratory tract---448,923---17,902---(3.99 %)
4. Catarrh/Bronchitis---281,294---1,185---(0.42 %)
5. Gonorrhea---95,833---6---(0.01 %)
6. Typhoid fever---75,368---27,056---(35.90 %)
7. Syphilis---73,382---123---(0.17 %)
8. Measles---67,763---4,246---(6.27 %)
9. Mumps---48,128---72---(0.15 %)
10. Scurvy---30,714---383---(1.25 %)
11. Tuberculosis---13,499---5,286---(39.16 %)
12. Smallpox---12,236---4,717---(38.55 %)
13. Chronic Alcoholism/Delirium tremens---10,253---605---(5.90 %)
14. Diptheria---8,053---777---(9.65 %)
15. Typhus---2,501---850---(33.99 %)
XXI. Anesthesia
Two main forms of anesthesia were used during the Civil War: chloroform and ether. In the 8,900 surgeries reported to the Union Surgeon General in which type of anesthesia was specified, chloroform was used in 76% of cases, ether in 15% of cases, and some combination of chloroform and ether in 9% of cases. Of the 6,784 cases using chloroform that were reported, death attributable to the anesthetic was involved in 37 cases, or 0.5%. 254 surgeries were reported in which no anesthetic was used (3%).
Tom Pearson, Reference Librarian
Special Collections Department
St. Louis Public Library
1301 Olive Street
St. Louis, MO 63103
Friday, August 27, 2010
KILLED BY THE CURE: CIVIL WAR MEDICINE, PT. VI
XVII. Confederate Medical Shortages- The Blockade
The blockade of the Confederate states by the Union Navy meant that surgical supplies and medications were soon in short supply in the South. New items could be acquired in one of three ways:
1. From smugglers who managed to slip through the Union blockade. But prices soon became exorbitant: quinine in late 1863 was selling in the South for $400-$600 per ounce!
2. Capture of Union medical supplies. But this method was of course unreliable.
3. Manufacture medicines in the south from available ingredients. Labs were set up in Atlanta, Charlotte, Montgomery, and Knoxville, to name just a few of the cities selected.
XVIII. Confederate Medical Shortages- "Indigenous Remedies"
The Confederate Medical Service in 1864 issued a “Standard Supply Table of Indigenous Remedies for Field Service and Sick in General Hospitals.” Among the listed herbs, plants, and trees which could be used medicinally were:
Calamus, Virginia Snakeroot, Sassafras, Lavender, Bearberry, Sumac, Sage, Blackberry, and Dewberry, plus the leaves and sometimes the bark of these trees:
Dogwood, Persimmon, White Oak, Wild Cherry, and Tulip (to name only some of the listed herbs, plants, and trees).
XIX. Confederate Medical Shortages- Medical Instruments
The South was never able to set up factories to manufacture precision medical instruments, so surgeons sometimes had to improvise. These substitutions were necessary on occasion:
1. Surgical saws- Carpenter’s saws
2. Scalpels- Penknives
3. Surgical hooks- Forks
4. Tenaculum- Knitting needles
5. Splints- Fence rails
Tom Pearson, Reference Librarian
Special Collections Department
St. Louis Public Library
1301 Olive Street
St. Louis, MO 63103
The blockade of the Confederate states by the Union Navy meant that surgical supplies and medications were soon in short supply in the South. New items could be acquired in one of three ways:
1. From smugglers who managed to slip through the Union blockade. But prices soon became exorbitant: quinine in late 1863 was selling in the South for $400-$600 per ounce!
2. Capture of Union medical supplies. But this method was of course unreliable.
3. Manufacture medicines in the south from available ingredients. Labs were set up in Atlanta, Charlotte, Montgomery, and Knoxville, to name just a few of the cities selected.
XVIII. Confederate Medical Shortages- "Indigenous Remedies"
The Confederate Medical Service in 1864 issued a “Standard Supply Table of Indigenous Remedies for Field Service and Sick in General Hospitals.” Among the listed herbs, plants, and trees which could be used medicinally were:
Calamus, Virginia Snakeroot, Sassafras, Lavender, Bearberry, Sumac, Sage, Blackberry, and Dewberry, plus the leaves and sometimes the bark of these trees:
Dogwood, Persimmon, White Oak, Wild Cherry, and Tulip (to name only some of the listed herbs, plants, and trees).
XIX. Confederate Medical Shortages- Medical Instruments
The South was never able to set up factories to manufacture precision medical instruments, so surgeons sometimes had to improvise. These substitutions were necessary on occasion:
1. Surgical saws- Carpenter’s saws
2. Scalpels- Penknives
3. Surgical hooks- Forks
4. Tenaculum- Knitting needles
5. Splints- Fence rails
Tom Pearson, Reference Librarian
Special Collections Department
St. Louis Public Library
1301 Olive Street
St. Louis, MO 63103
Thursday, July 22, 2010
KILLED BY THE CURE: CIVIL WAR MEDICINE, PT. III
Copyright © 2009 by St. Louis Public Library.
VIII. Civil War Nurses
Female nurses were a most uncommon sight in American medicine prior to the Civil War. Men performed most of the duties we commonly associate with nurses. Florence Nightingale and her Corps of Female Nurses, who were employed by the British during the Crimean War in the 1850s, had fired the imaginations of American women, however, many of whom eagerly volunteered their services to the Union Army Medical Corps.
IX. Dorothea Dix
A flood of applications by women to work as volunteer nurses in Union Army hospitals brought about the appointment of Miss Dorothea Dix, who was already well-known for her pre-war work in the reform of insane asylums, as Superintendent of Female Nurses by the Director of the Union Army Medical Corps in 1861.
Miss Dix decreed that volunteer female nurses should be “plain-looking, mature” women who had to dress in simple brown or black dresses. They were not to wear bows or jewelry, have curls in their hair, or wear hoops in their skirts.
X. Appearance of Female Nurses
Most women greatly disliked Miss Dix’s strictures on age, appearance, and dress, and many violations of her rules occurred. One volunteer female nurse noted that “never before have so many American women attempted to appear older than their natural years.” Attractive women did what they could to disguise their looks until appointed, then reverted to their normal appearances.
Many women “felt naked” without the hoop skirts then in fashion, and wore them in spite of Miss Dix’s prohibition. In at least one documented case, a hoop skirt caught in a soldier’s surgical dressing and opened the wound, causing his death due to hemorraging.
Tom Pearson, Reference Librarian
Special Collections Department
St. Louis Public Library
1301 Olive Street
St. Louis, MO 63103
VIII. Civil War Nurses
Female nurses were a most uncommon sight in American medicine prior to the Civil War. Men performed most of the duties we commonly associate with nurses. Florence Nightingale and her Corps of Female Nurses, who were employed by the British during the Crimean War in the 1850s, had fired the imaginations of American women, however, many of whom eagerly volunteered their services to the Union Army Medical Corps.
IX. Dorothea Dix
A flood of applications by women to work as volunteer nurses in Union Army hospitals brought about the appointment of Miss Dorothea Dix, who was already well-known for her pre-war work in the reform of insane asylums, as Superintendent of Female Nurses by the Director of the Union Army Medical Corps in 1861.
Miss Dix decreed that volunteer female nurses should be “plain-looking, mature” women who had to dress in simple brown or black dresses. They were not to wear bows or jewelry, have curls in their hair, or wear hoops in their skirts.
X. Appearance of Female Nurses
Most women greatly disliked Miss Dix’s strictures on age, appearance, and dress, and many violations of her rules occurred. One volunteer female nurse noted that “never before have so many American women attempted to appear older than their natural years.” Attractive women did what they could to disguise their looks until appointed, then reverted to their normal appearances.
Many women “felt naked” without the hoop skirts then in fashion, and wore them in spite of Miss Dix’s prohibition. In at least one documented case, a hoop skirt caught in a soldier’s surgical dressing and opened the wound, causing his death due to hemorraging.
Tom Pearson, Reference Librarian
Special Collections Department
St. Louis Public Library
1301 Olive Street
St. Louis, MO 63103
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