Citizendia

Amputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma or surgery. Treatment of physical trauma is described here and in First aid. Surgery (from the χειρουργική cheirourgikē, via chirurgiae meaning "hand work" is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. Cancer (medical term Malignant Neoplasm) is a class of Diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled Please do not add warnings to this page about the pictures Wikipedia is not censored for taste and has a guideline preventing such warnings - WikipediaNo disclaimers in articles In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventative surgery for such problems. A special case is the congenital amputation, a congenital disorder, where foetal limbs have been cut off by constrictive bands. Congenital amputation is a Congenital disorder caused by fibrous bands of the amnion that constrict foetal limbs to such an extent that they fall off due A congenital disorder is a disease or disorder that is present at birth A fetus (or foetus or fœtus) is a developing Mammal or other Viviparous Vertebrate, after the Embryonic stage and In some countries, amputation of the hands or feet is or was used as a form of punishment for people who committed crimes. Punishment is the practice of imposing something unpleasant or aversive on a person or animal usually in response to disobedient or morally wrong behavior Amputation has also been used as a tactic in war and acts of terrorism. In some cultures and religions, minor amputations or mutilations are considered a ritual accomplishment. Unlike many non-mammalian animals (such as lizards that shed their tails), once removed, human extremities do not grow back. Lizards are a large and widespread group of Reptiles of the order Squamata, with nearly 5000 species and ranging across all continents except A transplant or a prosthesis is the only option for recovering the loss. In Medicine, a prosthesis (plural prostheses) is an Artificial extension that replaces a missing Body part.

Contents

History

Origins of the word

Amputation is derived from the Latin amputare, to cut away, from amb (about) and putare (to prune). The Latin word has never been recorded in a surgical context, being reserved to indicate punishment for criminals. The English word amputation was first applied to surgery in the 17th century, possibly first in Peter Lowe's A discourse of the Whole Art of Chirurgerie (published in either 1597 or 1612), his work was derived from 16th century French texts and early English writers also used the words "extirpation" (16th century French texts tended to use extirper), "disarticulation," and "dismemberment" (from the Old French desmembrer and a more common term before the 17th century for limb loss or removal), or simply "cutting. " but by the end of the 17th century amputation had come to dominate as the accepted medical term.

Overview

The history of human amputation can be divided into a number of periods. Initially, limb loss was usually the result of trauma or 'nonsurgical' removal. This was followed by the hesitant beginnings of surgical intervention, mainly on gangrenous limbs or those already terribly damaged, which developed through to surgical amputations around the 15th century, the distinction is marked by the choice of the patient and the aim of saving a life and achieving a healed stump, despite the difficulties with infection and the lack of effective control for pain or blood loss. Please do not add warnings to this page about the pictures Wikipedia is not censored for taste and has a guideline preventing such warnings - WikipediaNo disclaimers in articles Improvements in surgical techniques were married with better haemorrhage control in the 19th century and in the 1840s with anaesthesia and around twenty years later efficient infection control. Bleeding, technically known as hemorrhaging / haemorrhaging (see American and British spelling differences) is the loss of Blood from Anesthesia, or anaesthesia (see spelling differences; from Greek grc αν- an-, "without" and grc αἲσθησις The 20th century noted marked improvements in surgical techniques and also a move to increasingly sophisticated prosthetic limbs.

Types

Types of amputation include:

Hemicorporectomy, or amputation at the waist, is the most radical amputation. In Medicine ( Surgery) hemicorporectomy (also named translumbar amputation and "halfectomy") is a Radical surgery in which

Genital modification and mutilation may involve amputating tissue (as the case is with circumcision), although not necessarily as a result of injury or disease. The terms genital modification and genital mutilation can refer to permanent or temporary changes to Human Genitals. Male circumcision is the removal of some or all of the Foreskin (prepuce from the Penis.

As a rule, partial amputations are preferred to preserve joint function, but in oncological surgery, disarticulation is favored.

Reasons for amputation

Method

Curved knives such as this one were used, in the past, for some kinds of amputations.
Curved knives such as this one were used, in the past, for some kinds of amputations.

The first step is ligating the supplying artery and vein, to prevent hemorrhage. In medicine a ligature is a device similar to a Tourniquet, usually of thread or string tied around a limb blood vessel or similar to restrict blood flow Arteries are Blood vessels that carry blood away from the Heart. In the Circulatory system, a vein is a Blood vessel that carries Blood back toward the Heart (as opposed to Artery, a blood vessel Bleeding, technically known as hemorrhaging / haemorrhaging (see American and British spelling differences) is the loss of Blood from The muscles are transected, and finally the bone is sawed through with an oscillating saw. Bones are rigid organs that form part of the Endoskeleton of Vertebrates They function to move support and protect the various organs of the body produce Oscillation is the repetitive variation typically in Time, of some measure about a central value (often a point of Equilibrium) or between two or more different states A saw is a Tool that uses a hard blade or wire with an abrasive edge to cut through softer materials Skin and muscle flaps are then transposed over the stump, occasionally with the insertion of elements to attach a prosthesis. In Medicine, a prosthesis (plural prostheses) is an Artificial extension that replaces a missing Body part.

Self-amputation

In some rare cases when a person has become trapped in a deserted place, with no means of communication or hope of rescue, the victim has amputated their own limb:

Even rarer are cases where self-amputation is performed for criminal or political purposes:

Body Integrity Identity Disorder is a psychological condition in which an individual feels compelled to remove one or more of their body parts, usually a limb. Body Integrity Identity Disorder ( BIID) also known as Amputee Identity Disorder, refers to the psychological feeling that one would be happier living life as an amputee In some cases, that individual may take drastic measures to remove the offending appendages, either by causing irreparable damage to the limb so that medical intervention can not save the limb, or by causing the limb to be severed.

After-effects

A large proportion of amputees (50-80%) experience the phenomenon of phantom limbs;[11] they feel body parts that are no longer there. A phantom limb is the sensation that an amputated or missing limb (even an organ like the appendix is still attached to the body and is moving appropriately These limbs can itch, ache, and feel as if they are moving. Some scientists believe it has to do with a kind of neural map that the brain has of the body, which sends information to the rest of the brain about limbs regardless of their existence. Phantom sensations and phantom pain may also occur after the removal of body parts other than the limbs, e. g. after amputation of the breast, extraction of a tooth (phantom tooth pain) or removal of an eye (phantom eye syndrome). The phantom eye syndrome is a Phantom pain in the eye and visual Hallucinations, after the removal of an eye ( Enucleation, Evisceration) A similar phenomenon is unexplained sensation in a body part unrelated to the amputated limb. It has been hypothesized that the portion of the brain responsible for processing stimulation from amputated limbs, being deprived of input, actually expands into the surrounding brain, such that an individual who has had an arm amputated will experience unexplained pressure or movement on their face or head. The individual may also experience some trauma as well as emotional discomfort.

In many cases, the phantom limb aids in adaptation to a prosthesis, as it permits the person to experience proprioception of the prosthetic limb. Proprioception (ˌproʊpriːəˈsɛpʃən PRO -pree-o-SEP-shun from Latin proprius, meaning "one's own" and perception is the Sense

Another side-effect can be heterotopic ossification, especially when a bone injury is combined with a head injury. Heterotopic ossification (HO is the process by which Trabecular bone forms outside of the Skeleton. The brain signals the bone to grow instead of scar tissue to form, and nodules and other growth can interfere with prosthetics and sometimes require further operations. This type of injury has been especially common among soldiers wounded by improvised explosive devices in the Iraq war. An improvised explosive device ( IED) is a Bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional Military action The Iraq War, also known as the Second Gulf War, the Occupation of Iraq, or the War in Iraq, is an ongoing Military campaign [1]

Notable amputees

Amputation in Fiction

See also

References

  1. ^ Islam Online- News Section
  2. ^ Tariq Ramadan : Do you trust this man? - People, News - Independent.co.uk
  3. ^ RTE: Aussie Rules star has finger removed
  4. ^ SportsAustralia.com: Tawake undergoes surgery to remove finger
  5. ^ Man Pinned Under Tree Amputates His Leg
  6. ^ CMU grad describes cutting off his arm to save his life. A tourniquet is a constricting or compressing device used to control venous and arterial circulation to an extremity for a period of time Autotomy (from the Greek auto = "self-" and tomy = "severing" or self amputation is the act whereby an animal severs Amputee Soccer Championship Central America One of the tragic legacies of conflicts in Central America in the decade of the Retrieved on 2008-05-07. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 558 - In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses
  7. ^ smh.com.au - The Sydney Morning Herald
  8. ^ Life: Dismembered again
  9. ^ Errol Morris: Profiles
  10. ^ CNN - Bombing suspect's brother cuts hand off with saw - March 9, 1998
  11. ^ Heidi Schultz (January 2005). "Phantom Input". National Geographic Magazine.  

External links

Dictionary

amputation

-noun

  1. surgical removal of all or part of a limb etc
  2. the loss of a limb etc through trauma
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