Limb amputation was performed since ancient times. However, it was perfected during middle ages by many surgeons. Limb amputation till this day is used for extracting a limb which was infected with a disease such as gangrene. It was used during religious crusades to prevent incurable wounds from infecting and worsening the person's condition. Hippocrates, a Greek physician who practiced around 460 to 380 BC, performed amputations for the treatment of …show more content…
This rate has grown to 62% for those with high leg amputations. Wine and honey were used as an antiseptic. Thomas Vicary, the personal surgeon of Henry VIII, recommended urine as an antiseptic to treat battle wounds. Limb amputation brings excoriating pain therefore many types of anesthetics came around. One of the most popular would have been Opium and Cannabis. Andalusian ophthalmologic surgeon Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi relied on opium and mandrake as surgical anesthetics. The Persian physician Abū ‘Alī al-Husayn ibn Sina ("Avicenna") described opium as the most powerful of the drugs in his The Canon of Medicine. The text lists medicinal effects of opium, such as hypnosis, antitussive effects, gastrointestinal effects, cognitive effects, respiratory depression, neuromuscular disturbances, and sexual dysfunction. It also refers to opium's potential as a