Chronic post-amputation pain and blast injury: An analysis of British First World War Veterans’ pension records, 1914-85

Abstract

LAY SUMMARY The First World War created the largest group of amputees in history. There were over 41,000 amputee Veterans in the UK alone. Recent studies estimate that over two-thirds of amputees will suffer long-term pain because of their injuries. Medical files for the First World War have recently been released to the public. Despite the century between the First World War and the recent Afghanistan conflict, treatments for injured soldiers and the most common types of injuries have not significantly changed. A team of historians, doctors, and amputee Veterans have collaborated to investigate what happened next for soldiers injured in the war and how their wounds affected their postwar lives, and hope that looking back at the First World War and seeing which treatments worked and what happened to the amputees as they got older (e.g., if having an amputation put them at risk of other illnesses or injuries) can assist today’s Veterans and medical teams in planning for their future care.