Amputation in the Civil War: Physical and Social Dimensions

Demand Shocks, Procurement Policies, and the Nature of Medical Innovation: Evidence from Wartime Prosthetic Device Patents

“…Importantly, with of the surviving wounded was likely to be amputees during the Civil War than during the Crimean War due to improvements in surgical survival rates. Estimates suggest amputation survival rates of roughly 75 percent during the U.S. Civil War (Figg and Farrell-Beck, 1993). During the years surrounding the Crimean War, by contrast, amputation survival rates among civilians treated in the relatively favorable conditions of the London Hospital were nearly 50 percent.…”

Disability Studies and the Classical Body

“…They were practical, useful, they empowered their users and facilitated their return to some semblance of normality. There are broad similarities with the way that extremity prostheses were used by veterans in the US Civil War, and the First and Second World Wars, although the restorative effects of these on the individuals themselves and on their societies more broadly were made much more explicit in the way that the prostheses were marketed and advertised (Figg and Farrell-Beck, 1993;Hermes, 2002;Neumann, 2010;Hasegawa, 2012). However, facial prostheses seem to have been viewed relatively negatively.…”

Demand Shocks, Procurement Policies, and the Nature of Medical Innovation: Evidence from Wartime Prosthetic Device Patents

“…As shown of the surviving wounded was likely to be amputees during the Civil War than during the Crimean War due to improvements in surgical survival rates. Estimates suggest amputation survival rates of roughly 75 percent during the U.S. Civil War (Figg and Farrell-Beck, 1993). During the years surrounding the Crimean War, by contrast, amputation survival rates among civilians treated in the relatively favorable conditions of the London Hospital were nearly 50 percent.…”