The Iron Man of the Renaissance: the contribution of Girolamo Fabrizi d'Acquapendente.

PURPOSE: To highlight the most relevant contributions of the Italian Renaissance surgeon Girolamo Fabrizi d'Acquapendente in the field of orthopaedics and traumatology. METHODS: An extensive research on the life and achievements of Girolamo Fabrizi was conducted on University Libraries as well as on electronic databases like PubMed. RESULTS: Girolamo Fabrizi d'Acquapendente is known for his embryology and physiology studies, particularly on sensory organs and blood circulation. He founded the world's first permanent anatomical theater established at the University of Padua and inaugurated in 1595. His most notable publications include surgical and definitely orthopedics works such as "De fracturis" (On fractures) and "De luxationibus" (On joint displacement). He outlined some principles of treatment that are still valid nowadays such as anatomical reduction and stabilization of the fracture, that were applied using the equipment available at that time. He described and illustrated maneuvers and instruments, such as pulleys, winches, splint, and bandages. He further depicted the famous "Oplomochlion" ("the armored man"), which is actually a collection of all of the braces used at the time to correct congenital and post-traumatic deformities. CONCLUSION: Bracing and prosthetic replacements have accompanied medical history throughout the centuries, from Ancient Egypt to the present, but it was the ingenuity of Renaissance surgeons that pushed biomedical technology to new heights: Girolamo Fabrizi d'Acquapendente was one of the most illustrious contributors to these great achievements.

The Masters of the Bolognese Orthopaedic School.

Bologna is one of the most ancient cradles of medical knowledge, as the city hosts one of the oldest medical faculties in the world. Among its best known institutions there is the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute, founded in the late nineteenth century, whose history is strictly connected with the evolution and development of the Italian orthopaedic practice of the last 120 years. The present manuscript acknowledges the main contributions by Francesco Rizzoli, Alessandro Codivilla and Vittorio Putti, who prompted the foundation and the international recognition of the Rizzoli Institute and the related Bolognese Orthopaedic School.

Antoni marian gabryszewski as a pioneer of orthopaedics and rehabilitation in poland.

This article describes the work of Dr. Antoni Marian Gabryszewski, orthopaedic surgeon, associate professor at Lvov University, towards the development of orthopaedics and rehabilitation in Poland before World War I. It is based on archival materials, publications in medical journals and articles from the daily press of that time. The author presents little-known facts concerning Dr. Gabryszewski's occupational and academic activity and his work at the Surgery Dept. of Lvov University as well as his habilitation dissertation, regarded as the first attempt to position orthopaedics as distinct from surgery in Poland. The article also describes his long-term work at the private Orthopaedic Facility established in 1898 in Lvov which later incorporated the Zander Institute in 1908. The Zander Institute was the first in Galicia to offer exercise machines designed by Dr. Gustav Zander, imported from Stockholm and enjoying an extraordinary popularity in the world. Dr. Gabryszewski's practice as a spa doctor, which he pursued in Iwonicz Zdrój in the summer months, is also presented. Dr. A. Gabryszewski introduced comprehensive rehabilitation to the treatment of orthopaedic patients both at the Surgery Dept. of Lvov University and at his Orthopaedic Facility. He used therapeutic gymnastics (particularly mechanotherapy), therapeutic massage, physical therapy and orthopaedic aids. Analysis of the source materials leads to unequivocal conclusions attesting to Dr. A. Gabryszewski's pioneering role and significant contribution to the development of orthopaedics and rehabilitation in Poland.

Crutch art painting in the Middle Ages as orthopaedic heritage (part II: the peg leg, the bent-knee peg and the beggar).

Little of historical value about crutches can be ascertained before the Middle Ages. In contrast, the Middle Ages offer many examples for the study of crutches. Even if no medical report can be found, the immense patronage of the Church, encouraging artists to portray the saints and their miracles, has left great masterpieces that drew people with crutches. Pictures and the history of medieval conceptions of disability appear to provide an interesting chronicle of surgery of the peg leg and the bent-knee peg among the representations of cripples and beggars.

Prof. Vatroslav Florschütz and the Balkan beam frame.

Prof. Vatroslav Florschütz constructed in 1911 an extension table for repositioning bone fracture fragments of the upper and lower extremities, after which a plaster splint was applied--this later became to be known as the Balkan beam frame. Florschütz's personal insistences of new techniques at the beginning of the 1900 have helped shape war surgery and traumatology.

Biographical sketch: Ruth Jackson, MD, FACS 1902-1994.

This biographical sketch on Ruth Jackson corresponds to the historic text, The Classic: The Cervical Syndrome, available at DOI 10.1007/s11999-010-1278-8 .

Origins of eponymous orthopaedic equipment.

BACKGROUND: Orthopaedists make great use of eponymous equipment, however the origins of these tools are unknown to many users. This history enriches, enlightens, and enhances surgical education, and may inspire modern innovation. QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: We explored the origins of common and eponymous orthopaedic equipment. METHODS: We selected pieces of equipment named for their inventors and in the broadest use by modern orthopaedists. We do not describe specialized orthopaedic implants and instruments owing to the overwhelming number of these devices. RESULTS: The history of this equipment reflects the coevolution of orthopaedics and battlefield medicine. Additionally, these stories evidence the primacy of elegant design and suggest that innovation is often a process of revision and refinement rather than sudden inspiration. Their history exposes surgical innovators as brilliant, lucky, hardworking, and sometimes odd. These stories amuse, enlighten, and may inspire modern orthopaedists to develop creative solutions of their own. CONCLUSIONS: The rich history of the field's eponymous instruments informs an ongoing tradition of innovation in orthopaedics.

Musculoskeletal surgery in eighteenth century America.

Surgeons in America in the eighteenth century treated wounds, fractures, dislocations, and gunshot injuries of the skeletal structures and also contended with osteomyelitis and tuberculosis of bones and joints. In meeting this challenge, they proved innovative, adaptive and courageous, and developed principles of surgery, some of which still are in use today.

[One hundred years of bone surgery in the Lyons Teaching Hospitals (1897-1997)]. / Cent ans de chirurgie osseuse hospitalo-universitaire à Lyon (1897-1997).

Throughout the XIXth century and until 1945, bone surgery focused primarily on correcting deformities in children. The treatment of injury-related bone lesions in adults (compound fractures and dislocations) remained within the province of general surgeons until circa 1970. Lyons played a unique role in the XVIIIth and XIXth centuries, for three reasons. 1) The term "orthopedics" (which means "straight children", or "children to be made straight") was coined in 1743 by an 80-year-old inhabitant of the Saint Nizier parish in Lyons, Nicolas Andry or André, a former dean of the Paris School of Medicine. The term was adopted throughout the world. 2) The first French orthopedic surgeon was Gabriel Pravaz, who was from the Pont-de-Beauvoisin neighborhood of Lyons. He treated "children to be made upright" in his orthopedic and pneumatic institute located quai des Etroits, and was the first to successfully reduce congenitally dislocated hips (before 1850). 3) In 1987, the most famous bone surgeon was Ollier, who brilliantly applied the method developed by Claude Bernard to the experimental study of the role of the periosteum. He observed that new bone was laid down after "subperiosteal resection" of infected bone or joint tissue. His technique allowed to reduce dramatically the number of limb amputations for infection. In 1897, in addition to Ollier (who died in 1900), many other outstanding surgeons from Lyons demonstrated an interest in bone surgery. Around 1897. Jaboulay (known as a vascular and transplantation surgeon) successfully performed amputations through the middle of the pelvis. Also during this period, Gangolphe used osteotomies to correct limb deformities, and also performed bone grafts. Between 1897 and 1910, the radiologist E. Destot, who worked at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Lyons, published two books on the classification of fractures, "The wrist" and "The foot", both of which were promptly translated in English. The Lyons School at the Hôtel-Dieu that demonstrated its excellence in the XIXth century gave birth in the XXth century to a school of infantile bone surgery, headed by G. Nové-Josserand from 1894 to 1937 then by L Tavernier from 1937 to 1947. Tavernier was a sports enthusiast, and was proficient not only in pediatric surgery but also in the areas of meniscal lesions and bone tumors. He was succeeded by Guilleminet (1947-1962), then by Joseph Marion. Two teaching hospital departments of adult orthopedic surgery were created, one headed by Albert Trillat, who, together with H. Dejour and A. Mounier-Khun, was known throughout Europe as an outstanding sports injury surgeon, and the other by Jean Creyssel, who worked with G. de Mourgues and played a significant role in France in bringing trauma-related injuries (traditionally treated by general surgeons) into the field of orthopedic surgery. The first successful total hip arthroplasty procedures were done around 1966. Orthopedics and traumatology became a separate specialty in 1969, and in the wake of this change many departments focusing only or preferentially on one part of the body (e.g., the hand and upper limb, knee, or hip) were created. Over the last century, the Lyons Society for Surgery has played a key role in publishing discoveries in bone surgery and in disseminating knowledge in this field. Although societies for surgery of the hip, knee, spine, hand, foot, and so on now exist, meetings of the Lyons Society for Bone Surgery remain useful since new ideas and techniques sometimes stem from experience acquired in other fields. It is worthy of note that in other European countries traumatology is a specialty in itself, which includes visceral and bone traumatology. It can be anticipated that harmonizing the traumatology specialty in Germay and the orthopedic surgery and traumatology specialty in France may raise a number of problems.