Image: Wikimedia Commons

amputation

Removal of a body extremity by trauma, prolonged constriction, or surgery

Instance of: disability
Subclass of: removal
, accident

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Amputation is the removal of a limb or other body part by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventive surgery for such problems. A special case is that of congenital amputation, a congenital disorder, where fetal limbs have been cut off by constrictive bands. In some countries, judicial amputation is currently used to punish people who commit crimes. Amputation has also been used as a tactic in war and acts of terrorism; it may also occur as a war injury. In some cultures and religions, minor amputations or mutilations are considered a ritual accomplishment. When done by a person, the person executing the amputation is an amputator. The oldest evidence of this practice comes from a skeleton found buried in Liang Tebo cave, East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo dating back to at least 31,000 years ago, where it was done when the amputee was a young child. A prosthesis or a bioelectric replantation may restore sensation of the amputated limb.

Overview

All data

60 statements · 23% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Facet of: total absence of body part
Opposite of: replantation
Native label: amputatio

On other databases

47 identifiers linking amputation across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

23%

externally sourced

Source last edited September 23, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). amputation (Q477415). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/amputation-Q477415