Frostbite: From Napoleonic era treatments to the first FDA approved frostbite drug

Dominique Jean Larrey lived quite a life. He was born in 1766, and at the age of 13, had to walk from his home in a French village to study in the city of Toulouse. That journey was 70 miles, and yes, he walked it. That would be important much later in his life, when he found himself walking through the bitter cold in Russia as the Chief Surgeon of Napoleon's army. During that time, Napoleon's troops had to contend with the reality of Russian cold and temperatures that got as low as -37 degrees Celsius, which is about -35 Fahrenheit.

Larrey attributed his ability to withstand the cold to his walking. But many of the soldiers around him wound up with frostbite, and to treat them, Larrey suggested slowly rewarming the affected area and rubbing it with snow. Frostbite treatment has been on quite the journey since then, and it was just earlier this year that the FDA approved the first drug to treat frostbite in the US, which is exciting news for the doctors who see cases of frostbite and for patients who are often left with the horrific reality of amputation.

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