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Volume 347:1906-1907 December 12, 2002 Number 24 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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In the opening scene of the movie "Dances with Wolves," dazed Union Army soldiers with mangled limbs are laid out, resigned to their turn at the surgeon's cleaver. This scene is typical of health care in the mid-19th century, when severe leg trauma would more often than not result in early amputation. Now, 150 years later, the debate continues over whether complex limb salvage or early amputation followed by fitting of a prosthesis is most likely to allow return to a normal lifestyle.

Progress in leg reconstruction has been marked by clearly defined steppingstones interspersed with decades of stagnation in . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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