Anna Vigano

• Political Sciences
• Librarian at Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli

PurposeThis brief historical note describes an arthroscopic instrument presented in Italy in 1950, and still preserved to this day at the library of the Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute in Bologna, Italy.Material and methodsA research on Casuccio, Santacroce, and Banfo prolific scientific collaboration was performed.ResultsThe arthroscopic instrument w...

Harvey Cushing and Vittorio Putti are well-recognized medical authorities. The Italian orthopedic surgeon Vittorio Putti was an advocate of modern orthopedics and a scholar in orthopedic history. Putti was a frequent traveler and an esteemed lecturer, and a close friend of the American neurosurgeon, pathologist, and writer Dr. Harvey Cushing. Corre...

During the 16 th century and at the beginning of the 17 th century the age-old competition between scholarly doctors and folk heal-ers became more and more serious, creating a division between the two categories entrusted with treating population diseases. On one side there were the representatives who practiced medicine in an official capacity, an...

In 1896 the Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute was inaugurated in Bologna, an important hospital whose history is strictly connected with the development of the orthopedic discipline in Italy. The aim of this manuscript was to retrace the history of the institution by analyzing the work of the main personalities who have contributed to making the Italian...

Study design: The manuscript describes the testimony of the Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute about Wilhelm Schulthess, a pioneer in the treatment of spinal deformities. Objective: To describe the intuitions of Wilhelm Schulthess through the documentation still preserved at the Rizzoli institute in Bologna. Summary of background data: Wilhelm Schul...

Bologna is one of the most ancient cradles of medical knowledge, as the city hosts one of the oldest medical faculties in the world. Among its best known institutions there is the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute, founded in the late nineteenth century, whose history is strictly connected with the evolution and development of the Italian orthopaedic p...

Osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) is a rare yet fascinating disease affecting young, active patients. It remains a ‘mysterious disease’ whose etiopathology, still unclear, is the subject of ongoing studies aiming improving the knowledge of this condition and, therefore, treatment options, too. Even though the first descriptions of intra-articular loo...

Ankle sprains are by far the most common injuries treated by sport medicine physicians. Treatment is mainly conservative, but in some cases surgical intervention is required. The aim of the present manuscript is to give an insight into the origins and developments of ankle ligaments reconstructive surgery, underlining the fundamental steps that mar...

The science and surgery of the meniscus have evolved significantly over time. Surgeons and scientists always enjoy looking forward to novel therapies. However, as part of the ongoing effort at optimizing interventions and outcomes, it may also be useful to reflect on important milestones from the past. The aim of the present manuscript was to explo...

Several eminent surgeons made breakthroughs in knee surgery throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Before that, knee injuries were only treated conservatively and it was thanks to the progress made in the field of biomechanics and biology that new surgical treatments were proposed. The history of medicine recalls some illustrious surgeo...

The First World War produced a huge number of disabled soldiers. During the war, surgeons realized that it was not enough to merely treat the limbs of the wounded soldiers; it was also necessary to train them to use their remaining abilities to their greatest capacity. Governments at the same time realized that such a high number of veterans create...

A Note from the Column Editor,Di Matteo and colleagues from the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute in Bologna, Italy share with us another extraordinary example of how medicine evolved in partnership with art. The University of Bologna is considered the oldest academic institution in the Western world, so it is no surprise that many of the finest exampl...

The First World War was a very harsh conflict and statistics recorded a great number of victims, both soldiers and civilians. One hundred years later, the whole world is commemorating the Great War by celebrating people and events that contributed to shaping the XX century. Beyond remembering political figures, war heroes or even famous battles, it...

Note from the Column Editors:Artists have studied anatomy for centuries, if not longer, to better understand the human form. For similar timeframes, anatomical dissections have been carried out by those curious about what lies beneath the skin in an effort to explain injury and illness, as well as to discover treatments for various conditions. Freq...

Few moments in mankind’s history have seen such an impressive cultural revolution as the one that occurred during the Renaissance. An entirely new concept of man emerged, and the philosophical principles of Humanism overcame the old ideas and ideals of the Medieval period. Besides the well-celebrated achievements in the fields of architecture, figu...

Gaspare Tagliacozzi's innovative surgical technique, which consisted of reconstructing parts of the face by grafting, was masterfully described in the work that made him famous, "De Curtorum Chirurgia per Insitionem." It was published by Gaspare Bindoni the Younger in 1597 in Venice, who was granted the exclusive right to print it by the Senate. Ho...

This manuscript describes the events and eminent personalities who animated the third Congress of the "Société Internationale de Chirurgie Orthopédique et Traumatologie", held in Bologna (Italy) in 1936. During this meeting the Society acquired its definitive name and the acronym under which it is now internationally recognized, SICOT. Some of the...

Nineteenth century Scottish surgeon William Macewen performed, in 1879, the first inter-human living donor transplantation in medical history. It was a bone allograft performed on a 3-year-old boy affected by a huge humeral bone loss. This paper analyses the historical context around Macewen, briefly introducing his life and the discoveries made by...

All the medical knowledge of all time in one book, the universal and perfect manual for the Renaissance surgeon, and the man who wrote it. This paper depicts the life and works of Giovanni Andrea della Croce, a 16th Century physician and surgeon, who, endowed with true spirit of Renaissance humanism, wanted to teach and share all his medical knowle...

There are some key figures in medical history whose achievements can be regarded as crucial in the definition of new knowledge and in setting new standards for clinical practice. This manuscript depicts the lives and work of three eminent physicians who were forerunners in the foundation of orthopaedics as an independent medical specialty. They are...

A biographical insight about nineteenth century Scottish surgeon Thomas Annandale (1838-1907), describing his life and his milestone contribution to the orthopaedics field, particularly analysing the first meniscus repair in history, that Annandale performed in 1883 and documented in his original paper titled "An Operation for Displaced Semilunar C...

Osteotomy is one of the most common surgical procedures performed everyday all over the world. This technique dates back to the first half of nineteenth century and to the fundamental contribution made by Pennsylvania Hospital surgeon John Rhea Barton (1794-1871), who can be considered the pioneer of modern osteotomies; this paper focuses on his li...

This is a brief historical essay about the 16th century European military surgeon Hans von Gersdorff (approximately 1455 to 1529 in Strasbourg) and his epochal illustrated text, Feldbuch der Wundtartzney (Field Book of Surgery), the first manual of traumatology describing the treatment of battle injuries covering topics ranging from human anatomy t...

Vittorio Putti has been recognized as one of the founders of orthopedic science. He wrote a number of original papers on different topics from his vast experience of orthopedics. In a paper on bone grafting dated 1912, Putti demonstrated his modern way of thinking by his ability to study past experiences critically and by his willingness to compare...

Out of a total of 40 patients affected with Blount's disease treated at the Pediatric Orthopaedic Division of the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute between 1965 and 1996, 29 were affected with the infantile type, and 11 with the adolescent type. In the group affected with infantile Blount's disease, the mean age was 5.5 years, 11 were bilateral, for a...