Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus awards the Bronze Star with Valor medal and a Purple Heart medal to Navy SEAL Lt. Dan Cnossen at the National Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. on Oct. 1, 2009. Cnossen was wounded by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan.

Newly released combat statistics from last year reveal an unprecedented number of castastrophic injuries suffered by U.S. troops in Afghanistan, according to an L.A. Times story.

The study by military doctors at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where most wounded troops are sent before returning to the U.S., revealed the proportion of troops who had undergone amputations in 2010 to be much higher than in past wars.

In 2010, 171 troops, or 11 percent of all casualties brought to Landstuhl, had limbs amputated. Of the 171, 65 had lost more than one limb. By comparison, 75 servicemembers had undergone amputations at Landstuhl in 2009. Of those, 21 had lost more than one limb.

The number of Injuries to the genitals and urinary tracts also rose, from 52 in 2009 to 142 in 2010, according to the study.

The story quoted military doctors calling the findings "unbelievable" and saying, "Nothing like this has been seen before."

Read U.S. troops in Afghanistan suffer more catastrophic injuries at latimes.com.

