Amputation is a surgery to remove a limb or part of a limb. Amputation can also happen as an accident, which is called a traumatic amputation.
Who is a candidate for the procedure?
Amputation is most often used for one of four conditions: · gangrene, which is a severe limb infection with death of tissue · lack of enough blood flow through the arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the affected limb · severe trauma or injury of a limb · cancer or a tumor involving a limb
Amputation has serious emotional and physical effects. For this reason, limb removal is usually advised only when other options are not possible or have little chance of success.
How is the procedure performed?
There are many different ways to perform an amputation. A single finger or toe may be removed, or an entire arm or leg. The surgeon will usually try to remove as little of the limb as needed to treat the condition.
An amputation is done in an operating room. In many cases, general anesthesia is used to put the person completely to sleep with medications. Regional anesthesia may also be used. In this case, a person is awake but has no sensation of pain.
The area of skin where the incision will be made is cleaned. The surgeon then cuts into and through the skin. In most cases, the surgeon will remove the limb or part of the limb at a point where there is a joint. For instance, the entire leg below the knee may be removed. The knee area is chosen partly because this is where the shinbone, or tibia, meets the thighbone, or femur. Removing the part or whole limb at a joint prevents the need to break one of the bones.
After the part or whole limb is removed, the skin is closed with sutures. A bandage or dressing is then placed over it.
What happens right after the procedure?
The person is taken to a surgery recovery room while he or she wakes up from the surgery. Pain medication is given if needed. Antibiotics and other medications may also be given.
When the person is awake and his or her vital signs are within normal limits, he or she is usually taken back to a bed in the surgical inpatient unit. In most cases, the person will need to stay in the hospital for at least 1 or 2 more days.
Rehabilitation after amputation has changed significantly. It now includes a more in depth process and aftercare to ensure and a full recovery is achieved and reduces the potential for infections and complications. Patients are encouraged to take part in sport to aid them in their recovery and, with the use of specialized prosthetics, are readily available. It has also been said to help reduce Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which, according to a study by Abeyasinghe 2012, suggested that 42.5% of lower limb amputees suffered with PTSD (Abeyasinghe, de Zoysa, Bandara, Bartholameuz, & Bandara,
Overall, I do believe that elective amputation can be justified but there are always going to be those people that take it too far. Bionic technology is going to continue to expand and develop. New advancements will create more concerns and more controversial issues.
parts such as the arms, the nose, and the genitalia are also cut off. The entire piece is also covered
Strange as that this may sound, when a Wannabee person lose a limb they are actually gaining so much more of who they felt they are. As one Amputee said to his doctor “you have made me the happiest of all men by taking away from me a limb which put an invincible obstacle to my
Anesthesia, “We take it for granted that we can sleep through operations without feeling any pain. But until about 150 years ago, the operating room was a virtual torture chamber because surgeons had no way to prevent the pain caused by their healing knives.”
Anesthesia was not used in surgeries until 1846, so prior to that the patient was completely conscious when they operated on him or her, unless the patient passed out from pain. Patients were unwilling to be cut into while they were awake: “Dragged unwillingly or carried from the ward to the operating theatre by a couple of hospital attendants (in Edinburgh a large wicker basker was used for this purpose) the patient was laid on the operating table and if necessary strapped down” (Youngson 27). The tools used in surgeries can be seen here. Anesthetics Anesthetics were not used in surgery until October 16, 1846, at Massachusetts General Hospital (Youngson 51). Anesthesia is an inhaled gas known as ether.
Although nothing can ever fully replace any part of our bodies, most people who have suffered the loss of a body part or who were born missing something that everyone else has and needs—like a foot or a hand—would agree that something is usually better than nothing. People have used all sorts of artificial devices probably from the beginnings of human history to help them compensate for the loss of a limb. Thus in very ancient times, the first and simplest prosthesis may have been a forked tree limb that was used as a crutch to help someone walk whose leg may have been badly damaged or lost in an accident or to a disease.
Almost all patients who have lost a limb due to an organ amputation, paralysis, or were born with inherited birth deficiency would undergo a mysterious phenomenon called phantom limb. Within this syndrome, patients would have a perception of their missing limb and would receive sensations from it. Limb loss could be due to many factors, such as congenital deficiencies, spinal cord injuries, and amputation of a limb. Although phantom limb sensation and phantom limb pain are strongly correlated, they should be differentiated. Phantom limb sensation is experienced by almost all biological and accidental amputees. On the other side, phantom limb pain is almost exclusively experienced as a result of an amputation.
The tools that are used are unique and have to be used with a steady hand. You will have different types of tools such as the cutters, drill, lever, mallet, rasp, saw, splint, and more. The bone cutter is used to cut the bones or remove them from the body. The proper name for the drill is called an “Orthopedic Bone Drill”. They are air powered tools that are used for pinning, drilling or wiring. The mallets are common is plastic surgeries but in orthopedic surgeries they are used for bone removal. Rasp are used to re-sculpt the bone. They allow the surgeon to make small details to the bone if they are needed. Now, there is many types of saws that are used during surgeries. Most of them all do the same thing, but as I was comparing them (medilexicon.com) and reading their descriptions about the saw and not all of them are used in orthopedic surgeries. They can also be used in different types of muscular surgeries, cardiac surgeries, and many more. A splint is something that the Doctors will put you in after surgery to keep your limbs from moving. Back in the older days, people used unsanitary handmade splints which consisted of “old bandages that were soaked in horse’s blood to stiffen them” (Shady Grove
Now let’s break down what General Anesthesia actually is. General Anesthesia makes you both unconscious and unable to feel pain during medical procedures. A study done by a team from Harvard Medical School, Weill Cornell Medical college, and the Massachusetts Ins...
Although the comorbidities and type of surgery dictate certain decisions in managing patient care, anesthesiologists maintain various modalities for the perioperative period. These consist of anything from local to regional anesthesia, including neuraxial techniques and peripheral nerve blocks, as well as monitored anesthesia care with sedation to general anesthesia. Overlapping of different anesthetic types and combinations of regional analgesics to supplement general anesthesia occur frequently.
The purpose of this prosthetic limb is to help people who have lost a hand or arm in any type of accident like Les Baugh. He one of the patients currently outgoing testing with the prosthetic limb. He lost both of his arms at a electrical accident a young age and the prosthetic he using are attached to the end of his shoulders, since the accident cut his arms right to that section. He underwent surgery in order to remap the nerves
Anesthesia is used in almost every single surgery. It is a numbing medicine that numbs the nerves and makes the body go unconscious. You can’t feel anything or move while under the sedative and are often delusional after being taken off of the anesthetic. Believe it or not, about roughly two hundred years ago doctors didn’t use anesthesia during surgery. It was rarely ever practiced. Patients could feel everything and were physically held down while being operated on. 2It wasn’t until 1846 that a dentist first used an anesthetic on a patient going into surgery and the practice spread and became popular (Anesthesia). To this day, advancements are still being made in anesthesiology. 7The more scientists learn about molecules and anesthetic side effects, the better ability to design agents that are more targeted, more effective and safer, with fewer side effects for the patients (Anesthesia). Technological advancements will make it easier to read vital life signs in a person and help better decide the specific dosages a person needs.
A procedure to remove part of the foreskin (circumcision). This may be done in severe
The previous insert from William Lee Adams’ article, Amputee Wannabes, describes a 33-year-old man’s wish for amputation of his foot. There was nothing physically or medically wrong with this limb; John only stated that he did not feel comfortable with his own body and felt as though his foot was not a part of him. John’s leg was amputated above the knee, and he went on to describe that the operation resolved his anxiety and allowed him to be at ease in his own body (Adams, 2007).