Joseph Pleban of Fredericksburg, Virginia learned that doctors would have to amputate his left foot because of a rare bone and joint disease called pigmented villonodular synovitis. This affliction caused tumors to form...

(Photo: AP/Thanh Nien Newspaper, Kha Hoa)In 1966, US Army doctor Sam Axelrad amputated the arm of Nguyen Quang Hung, a captured North Vietnamese soldier. Mr. Hung then spent several months recovering and working for the...

Last year marked the 150th anniversary of the first gunshots of the Civil War -and the first gunshot wounds. As it turns out, the bloodiest war in American history was also one of the most influential in battlefield medi...