The Things of Life by Alexey Golubev;

Author:Alexey Golubev;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc. (Tier 3)
Published: 2020-09-10T00:00:00+00:00

Iron as Medicine

In 1944, Gavriil Ilizarov (1921–92), a fresh graduate of the Simferopol Medical School, received a job placement as the only physician in a Siberian village of Dolgovka. He worked there for the following six years, during the time when World War II veterans were returning home, many of them with war wounds that due to mistreatment or negligence were progressing into disabilities. Despite being overburdened with his regular work, Ilizarov began to practice reconstructive surgery but soon became disappointed with the conventional orthopedic methods that were ineffective in treating complicated and neglected wounds. Since his hospital had only the most basic medical tools, Ilizarov experimented with makeshift equipment, including the use of steel rods as bone implants. The main problem that he faced in his experiments was how to fixate the fractured bones; at that time, plaster cast was used for external fixation, which could not provide adequate rigidness in complicated cases, while at the same time severely restricting the patient’s mobility. His hospital had no motor transport, and Ilizarov was forced to visit his outpatients in a horse cart or sleigh, depending on the season. He later recollected that it was the design of the Russian harness with its shaft bow that suggested to him the idea to use metal rings as external fixators for steels rods (figure 5.1).12

In 1950, Ilizarov successfully treated first patients with this new technique; according to semi-apocryphal accounts, the first version of his apparatus was made from spare bicycle parts.13 The same year he moved to the Siberian city of Kurgan, where he could finally specialize in orthopedic surgery and further develop his method. Next year he patented his apparatus to reduce fractures and correct bone deformities that otherwise doomed people to a life of immobility. The frame of metal rings, rods, and spikes revolutionized orthopedic surgery; it and its derivatives remain a preferred method of treatment for severe fractures and deformities.14 Yet the initial response of the Soviet medical establishment to this invention was lukewarm or even straightforwardly hostile because the new method undermined the hierarchies and reputations built on the conventional orthopedic approaches. It took Ilizarov almost two decades to achieve the professional and public recognition of his technique. Only in 1968 Ilizarov and his apparatus became nationally renowned after he successfully treated a Soviet celebrity athlete, the 1964 Olympic men’s high jump champion, Valery Brumel.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.