Croatian scientific society for the history of health culture
Abstract
This manuscript represents an attempt to review orthopaedic implants and reconstructive orthopaedic surgery for lower limbs lesions or trauma mainly in the 20th century. We emphasized on the type of implants, the biomaterials and their evolution, and we also engaged in a special reference for the pioneers of orthopaedic implant surgery and the innovative designers of those implants, in such a way to understand the ways and the stages through which they evolved to their present forms, as well as the scientific principles that affected their design and progress.
A correlation between the evolution of implants and several relevant disciplines (biomaterial chemists and engineers, biomechanics) that developed simultaneously with orthopaedic reconstructive joint surgery is present since the first attempts to reconstruct a damaged joint.
In the future, further progress is anticipated in the use of biomaterials, more compatible towards human biology, with minimally invasive applications and a perpetually increased life span. This progress depicts a phenomenon directly related to a multilevel, multifactorial and interdisciplinary scientific and technological field with many expectations.Ovaj rad predstavlja pokušaj pregleda ortopedskih implantata i rekonstruktivne ortopedske kirurgije kod lezija ili trauma donjih udova većinom tijekom 20. stoljeća. Naglasak je na tipu implantata, biomaterijalima i njihovu razvoju, ali smo se posebice osvrnuli na pionire ortopedske kirurgije implantata i inovativne dizajnere tih implantata kako bismo shvatili na koji su se način i kroz koje faze razvijali do današnjih oblika, kao i na znanstvene principe koji su utjecali na njihov dizajn i razvoj.
Veza između razvoja implantata i nekoliko relevantnih disciplina (biomaterijalna kemija i inženjerstvo, biomehanika) koje su se razvijale paralelno s ortopedskom rekonstruktivnom kirurgijom zglobova prisutna je od prvih pokušaja rekonstrukcije oštećenog zgloba.
Anticipira se daljnji napredak u korištenju biomaterijala, kompatibilnijih s ljudskom biologijom, s minimalno invazivnom primjenom i stalno rastućim životnim vijekom. Stoga govorimo o fenomenu direktno povezanom s multirazinskim, multifaktorskim i interdisciplinarnim znanstvenim i tehnološkim perspektivnim poljem
