Can anyone tell me about the amputations of the time nearest to the Civil War?
It is a common misconception that anesthesia was not used during most Civil War era field amputations. Chloroform or ether were in regular use. Since administering chloroform via inhalation through a saturated cloth first resulted in initial unconsciousness, followed by an agitated state, patients were restrained to allow the surgery to proceed to completion. Knowledge/use of antiseptics was sadly lacking though. If the patient was lucky, the surgery was conducted in the open air under bright sunlight. Otherwise the generally poor sanitary conditions, along with the reuse of bloodied linens and sponges, contributed to the extremely high rate of “surgical fever” infections. Over a quarter of patients died during the procedure with a subsequent post-op mortality rate exceeding 50% due to sepsis. Instruments were fairly straight forward..
