Der Unfallchirurg
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The application of mechanical principles to problems of the spine dates to antiquity. Significant developments related to spinal anatomy and biomechanical behaviour made by Renaissance and post-Renaissance scholars through the end of the 19th century laid a strong foundation for the developments since that time. The objective of this article is to provide a historical overview of spine biomechanics with a focus on the developments in the 20th century. The topics of spine loading, spinal posture and stability, spinal kinematics, spinal injury, and surgical strategies were reviewed.
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The requirements for treatment of femoral fractures are increasing with the rising age of the patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate femoral stiffness and the fracture risk after inserting different implants and implant combinations. ⋯ Taken together these results clearly indicate that a hip prosthesis significantly weakens the femur, whereas two stems produce the most stable situation at all. The situation of a hip prosthesis and an retrograde nail should be avoided or covered by a bridging-osteosynthesis. In clinical practice an extramedullary fixation technique for distal femoral fractures should be preferred.
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This report describes a case of complete rupture of the peroneal nerve as a consequence of low velocity trauma. A 54-year-old physically fit patient suffered a complex trauma with complete nerve discontinuity as a result of knee joint distortion without external force. The initial medical findings were unremarkable, in particular neither the accident medical history nor the initial sensitivity impairment suggested the presence of serious knee damage; however, during clinical diagnostics a complex trauma with rupture of the peroneal nerve was found. Accordingly, an extensive revision with nerve suturing was carried out.
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Historical Article
[Therapy of scoliosis from a historical perspective].
Scoliosis can be considered as one of the classical orthopedic diseases of the spine. The history of orthopedics is closely connected to the development of the therapy of scoliosis. ⋯ The first operations for treatment of scoliosis were carried out in 1839. The real success with surgical procedures for improvement in corrective options was connected to the introduction of metal spinal implants in the early 1960s.
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Today, lumbar disc disease is a very common disease, which will be often seen in both the family practice as well as in the consultations of orthopedics, neurology, rheumatology or neurosurgery. Furthermore, lumbar disc surgery is one of the most common spinal surgical procedures worldwide. But, for many centuries, physician had no clear understanding of the anatomical condition and the pathomechanism of this disease. ⋯ In 1742, a contemporary of Cotugno, the German Josias Weitbrecht (1702-1747) has to be credited for the first precise description of the intervertebral disc. Nearby a hundred years later, the German Hubert von Luschka (1820-1875) described for the first time a herniated disc in a pathologic specimen. With the landmark report of the New England Journal of Medicine in 1934, the two American surgeons, William Jason Mixter (1880-1958) and Joseph Seaton Barr (1901-1963), finally cleared the pathomechanism of lumbar disc disease.