Churchill's fractured neck of femur.

In June 1962 at the age of 87 years, Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) fell over in his hotel room at the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo and sustained a fracture to the neck of his left femur. He was flown back to London and the fracture operated on at The Middlesex Hospital by two eminent orthopaedic surgeons, Mr Phillip Newman (1911-1994), Consultant to the The Middlesex Hospital and The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore, and The Institute of Orthopaedics, London, and Professor Herbert Seddon (1903-1977), Consultant to the The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore, and Director of The Institute of Orthopaedics under whom Churchill was admitted as a private patient. Churchill's recovery was complicated by the development of deep vein thrombosis. During his convalescence, Churchill befriended Seddon who recorded his time with him in his private papers. On 21 August, Churchill was discharged to his home at 28 Hyde Park Gate which had been modified during his admission and made a return to public life in November 1962 at a dinner at the dining club he had originally founded, The Other Club.

Christiansen's artificial hip joints--what went wrong?

Modern arthroplasty is undoubtedly the greatest contribution that orthopaedic surgery has ever made to medical science. The honour for the good results achieved with total hip replacement surgery goes chiefly to the Briton John Charnley (1911-1982). However, the Norwegian Tor Aas Christiansen (1917-1981) has also earned a place in this history. He wanted to improve the operative treatment of dislocated, medial fractures of the femoral neck, and in the 1960s he constructed a hemiprosthesis. Later, he also made a total prosthesis for the hip joint. Over time, the prostheses proved to be less than successful. Nevertheless, approximately 6,500 Christiansen prostheses were fitted in Norway before a prospective Charnley vs. Christiansen study at the Coastal Hospital in Hagavik finally put an end to his prostheses in 1983. Indirectly, the study led to the establishment of a national register of hip prostheses, now the National Arthroplasty Register, at Haukeland University Hospital. Based on our personal cooperation with Christiansen, as well as original drawings and correspondence from the Polaris factory in Sandnes, we will tell the story of Christiansen's hemi- and total prostheses. These are a key element in the history of hip arthroplasty in Norway.

Biographical sketch: John Royal Moore, MD 1899-1988.

This biographical sketch on John R. Moore corresponds to the historic text, The Classic: Cartilaginous-cup Arthroplasty in Ununited Fractures of the Neck of the Femur (1948), available at DOI 10.1007/s11999-011-1974-z.

[Diagnosis and treatment of femural neck fractures from the beginning to operative treatment: a historical overview]. / Zur Geschichte von Diagnostik und Therapie hüftnaher Femurfrakturen bis zum Beginn der operativen Therapie : Ein historischer Uberblick.

Operative stabilisation of femural neck fractures is a routine procedure nowadays and is usually performed without delay. Treatment by osteosynthesis or endoprosthesis allows immediate mobilisation with at least partial weight bearing.Immobilisation for months, associated with high mortality as practiced in former times, is nearly forgotten. We present a review on 430 years of diagnosis and treatment of these fractures since the first description by Ambroise Paré. In fact, it took 150 years to recognise the different locations of various hip fractures; at the time, fractures close to the caput were felt to have no chance of healing. Impacted fractures of the femural neck were first described 250 years after the first publication by A. Paré.This article also presents an overview on the development of various treatments to stabilise hip fractures: closed reduction and repositioning by internal rotation of the external rotated leg, positioning of the leg on the double inclined splint, different types of extension treatment and finally early operative procedures, when asepsis was established and fractures could be imaged by x-rays.

Femoral neck fracture--the cause of death of Emperor Charles IV.

We present the oldest documented case of femoral neck fracture of a particular person in the history of orthopaedic surgery. Examination of the skeleton of Charles IV, the King of Bohemia and Roman Emperor living in XIVth century has revealed a fracture of the left femoral neck. This fracture was most probably an indirect cause of his death as it resulted in pneumonia, the immediate cause of death. This fact has been confirmed by contemporary chronicles.

Hip fracture and osteoporosis in a XIIth Dynasty female skeleton from Lisht, upper Egypt.

Osteoporosis and complications arising from loss of bone mass have been present in human populations for thousands of years. However, reports of this disease in antiquity remain uncommon. The purpose of this report is to describe an important case of osteoporosis in ancient Egypt because of its intrinsic interest and to provide perspectives on factors contributing to this condition today. The case providing the focus for this report is from Lisht, Upper Egypt and is dated to the XIIth Dynasty (1990-1786 B.C.). Methods used to characterize the pathology include gross anatomical study, radiology, and radiographic measurements. Observations, measurements, and indices all indicate osteoporosis complicated by fracture of the femoral neck and compression fractures of some vertebrae. The Lisht case adds to a small corpus of reports on osteoporosis and complicating factors of this disease in antiquity. Long-term survival of an extracapsular fracture of the femoral neck in this case is remarkable and may reflect supportive social conditions.