Brief History of Distraction Osteogenesis

Abstract

Hippocrates was the first to use repositioning and stabilization techniques of bone fractures in written history. Closer to our date, Codivilla was a pioneer to apply bone elongation techniques, who in 1905 published a case report of femoral extension using axial forces of distraction (Codivilla 2008) (Fig. 1.1). However, the distraction osteogenesis in modern way was first applied by Gavril Ilizarov (Fig. 1.2), the Russian surgeon who developed innovative devices for skeletal fixation and osteotomy that deliver minimum trauma to the periosteum and to the bone marrow (Fig. 1.3) (Ilizarov 1989a, b, 1990; Ilizarov et al. 1978). At the end of World War II, he started to treat returning soldiers with serious fractures in scope of the time facilitated only prolonged treatment of fractures with cast and skeletal traction. These conditions made him think of a method to expediate the treatment time of fractures. In 1950 (Kurgan, Siberia), he designed the first version of his apparatus, for which he obtained approval of the design in 1954 (Rozbruch and Ilizarov 2007). His studies set a landmark for distraction osteogenesis and determined the protocols for the technique. They are still used as the main reference for the studies in the field.