What is "immediate amputation"

Immediate \Im*me"di*ate\, a. [F. imm['e]diat. See In- not, and Mediate.]

1. Not separated in respect to place by anything intervening; proximate; close; as, immediate contact.

   You are the most immediate to our throne.
   --Shak.

2. Not deferred by an interval of time; present; instant. ``Assemble we immediate council.''
   --Shak.

   Death . . . not yet inflicted, as he feared, By some immediate stroke.
   --Milton.

3. Acting with nothing interposed or between, or without the intervention of another object as a cause, means, or agency; acting, perceived, or produced, directly; as, an immediate cause.

   The immediate knowledge of the past is therefore impossible.
   --Sir. W. Hamilton.

   Immediate amputation (Surg.), an amputation performed within the first few hours after an injury, and before the the effects of the shock have passed away.

   Syn: Proximate; close; direct; next.