ABSTRACT
Clubfoot is one of the most common congenital orthopaedic anomalies and was described by Hippocrates in the year 400 BC. From manipulation in antiquity to splint and plaster in the Renaissance the treatment had improved before tenotomy. Tenotomy was tested during the 19th century and will be explained in this manuscript; the introduction of subcutaneous tenotomy of the Achilles tendon had focused the attention of surgeons on the surgical treatment of clubfeet. While this operation was very successful in the correction of equinus deformities due to poliomyelitis, cerebral palsy, and old injuries, it was not a panacea for the patient with the congenital clubfoot. To be successful, the forefoot adduction and inversion had to be corrected completely before correction of the equinus deformity could benefit the patient. For this reason operations were extended to include tenotomies of other tendons, particularly the anterior tibial tendon and incisions in the capsules of the talar joints.
Subject(s)
Achilles Tendon/surgery , Clubfoot/history , Tenotomy/history , Clubfoot/surgery , Female , History, 19th Century , Humans , Infant , Male , Tenotomy/methods , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
Idiopathic clubfoot is one of the most common problems in paediatric orthopaedics. The treatment is controversial and continues to be one of the challenges in paediatric orthopaedics. The aim of this review is to assess the different methods of clubfoot treatment used over the years in light of the documentation present in the literature and art paintings from the antiquity to the end of the 19th century. The aim of this paper is to review all treatment methods of the clubfoot over the years that were proposed to provide patients a functional, pain-free, normal-looking foot, with good mobility, without calluses, and requiring no special shoes. Hippocrates was the first to write references about treatment methods of clubfoot. After the Middle Ages and the Renaissance where patients were treated by barber-surgeons, quacks and charlatans, bonesetters, and trussmakers, there were more detailed studies on the disease, with the help of famous names in medicine such as Venel and Scarpa.
Subject(s)
Clubfoot/history , Medicine in the Arts/history , Orthopedics/history , Casts, Surgical/history , Clubfoot/surgery , Clubfoot/therapy , Female , History, 15th Century , History, 16th Century , History, 17th Century , History, 18th Century , History, 19th Century , History, Ancient , History, Medieval , Humans , Infant , Male , Manipulation, Orthopedic/history , Shoes/history , Splints/history , Tenotomy/history , Tenotomy/methods , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
The discovery of effective surgical therapy for strabismus was one of the outstanding triumphs of the first half of 19th-century ophthalmology, just prior to the invention of the ophthalmoscope in 1850. Although priority for the development of strabismus surgery belongs to Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach of Germany, who first reported his surgical results in 1839, 4 cases of tenotomy of the medial rectus muscle had been performed in the United States by William Gibson in 1818 but never published. By 1840, the reports of surgery in Europe had rapidly spread to America where surgeons immediately began using these procedures. The first American surgeon to perform eye muscle surgery and publish his results was John Dix of Boston, and other surgeons were soon reporting their cases as well. We discuss 8 American pioneers in this field during the time (1840-1845) of the first burst of enthusiasm for this surgery. Although these surgeons were active in performing a large number of cases and carefully reporting their experiences and results, they did not make any major advances in the field.
Subject(s)
Strabismus/history , Tenotomy/history , History, 19th Century , Humans , Oculomotor Muscles/surgery , Ophthalmology/history , Strabismus/surgery , United StatesABSTRACT
We describe 4 cases of tendon transfers for correction of foot deformities, which were performed by Harvey Cushing in 1898.
