THE GUILLOTINE AMPUTATION
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
Excerpt
Drainage of infected or potentially infected tissues has always been a fundamentally sound surgical principle. Deviations from this basic principle, although occasionally resulting in a sensationally short period of convalescence, most often prolong recovery, endanger survival or result in death. The occasional success of a procedure which is a violation of sound principle does not justify the procedure in surgery any more than does the prosperity of one undetected criminal justify crime.
The guillotine or open amputation is an operation based on the sound surgical principle of drainage for infection. The efficacy of the guillotineamputation as a life saving measure and a "length preserving" operation was definitely established in the World War of 1914-1918. So lethal were the consequences of primary closure of battle wounds that it was necessary for the Surgeon General of the American Expeditionary Forces to issue an order prohibiting the closure by primary suture of any
Footnotes
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This paper, in a symposium on "Amputations," is published under the auspices of the Section on Orthopedic Surgery.
