[Beginnings of hip surgery--heroic times?]

Abstract

In a historical review we look back at some of the earliest operations on the hip joint--osteotomy and arthroplasty, disarticulation, hip joint excision, osteosynthesis--belonging still to the era when anaesthesia, antiseptic and aseptic techniques were not available. We are indeed curious to know how the surgeons prepared their patients for the intervention and for the great risks entailed. There is no doubt that these surgeons were brave, but we should not refer to these times as being heroic.