History
In 1905, Alessandro Codivilla introduced surgical practices for lengthening of the lower limbs. Early techniques had a high number of complications, particularly during healing, and often resulted in a failure to achieve the goal of the surgery.
In 1934 the New York Hospital For Joint Disease worked on an early method developed by Ilizarov. The major item that the US team of surgeons developed was the metal frame the leg was placed in to hold it perfectly in place until the cut made in the bone was healed over.
The breakthrough came with a technique introduced by Russian orthopedic surgeon Gavril Ilizarov. Ilizarov developed a procedure based on the biology of the bone and on the ability of the surrounding soft-tissues to regenerate under tension; the technique involved an external fixator, the Ilizarov apparatus, structured as a modular ring. Although the types of complications remained the same (infection, the most common complication occurring particularly along the pin tracks, pain, nerve and soft tissue irritation) the Ilizarov technique reduced the frequency and severity of the complications. The Ilizarov technique made the surgery safer, and allowed the goal of lengthening the limb to be achieved.
Read more about this topic: Distraction Osteogenesis
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“All history attests that man has subjected woman to his will, used her as a means to promote his selfish gratification, to minister to his sensual pleasures, to be instrumental in promoting his comfort; but never has he desired to elevate her to that rank she was created to fill. He has done all he could to debase and enslave her mind; and now he looks triumphantly on the ruin he has wrought, and say, the being he has thus deeply injured is his inferior.”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)
“There is a history in all men’s lives,
Figuring the natures of the times deceased,
The which observed, a man may prophesy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)