Existing comment:
Head Wounds:
Head wounds were not always fatal. A soldier's prognosis was best when bone splinters were removed and the wound was left to heal. For more severe wounds, trephination was used. Trephination involved drilling a circular hole into the skull to relieve pressure from bleeding or to remove fragments of bone pressing on the brain. Trephinations were fatal in over half of the 220 operations performed by Union surgeons. |