The beginnings of internal fixation of fractures in the pre-aseptic period 1797–1870

The first successful internal fixation in the pre-aseptic period was performed by the Flemish surgeon Dominique Le Roy in 1796 in Antwerpen, using a gold wire in a patient with an open fracture of the lower leg. In the first half of nineteenth century, he was followed by a number of other surgeons, among them Achille Cléophase Flaubert, father of the famous novelist Gustave Flaubert, who treated both acute fractures and non-unions. Almost all operations resulted in suppuration, however, in many patients the fracture healed, while other cases ended in amputation or even death. Despite a series of failures, individual operations inspired the next generation of surgeons. Nevertheless, it took another 40 years before the foundations of modern internal fixation were laid by the Belgian surgeon Albin Lambotte.