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History of femoral head fracture and coronal fracture of the femoral condyles

  • Orthopaedic Heritage
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Abstract

The first known description of the coronal fracture of the lateral femoral condyle was published by Busch in 1869. Hoffa used Busch’s drawing in the first edition of his book in 1888 and accompanied it only with one sentence. A full case history of this fracture pattern was described by Braun in 1891. However, Braun’s article fell into oblivion and so the fracture was popularized only in the fourth edition of Hoffa’s textbook, particularly thanks to the drawing, rather than the brief description. Therefore, a fracture of the posterior femoral condyle, or more specifically, of the lateral condyle, could properly be called “Busch-Hoffa fracture”. Femoral head fracture was initially described by Birkett in 1869. Of essential importance in this respect were the publications by Christopher in 1924 and, particularly, Pipkin’s study of 1957, including his classification that is still in use today. A historically correct eponym for a femoral head fracture would therefore be “Birkitt-Pipkin fracture”.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their special gratitude to Prof. Chris Colton, MD and Ms Ludmila Bébarová, PhD for their assistance in editing the manuscript and Ms Ludmila Frajerová, Ms Mirka Plecitá and As. Prof. Patrick Cronier, MD for tracing the original source documents.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedics, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and Central Military Hospital Prague, U Vojenské nemocnice 1200, 169 02, Prague 6, Czech Republic

    Jan Bartoníček

  2. University Center of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Stefan Rammelt

  3. UniversitätsCentrum für Orthopädie & Unfallchirurgie , Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus an der Technischen Universität Dresden, Fetscherstr. 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany

    Stefan Rammelt

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Correspondence to Jan Bartoníček.

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Bartoníček, J., Rammelt, S. History of femoral head fracture and coronal fracture of the femoral condyles. International Orthopaedics (SICOT) 39, 1245–1250 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00264-015-2730-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00264-015-2730-x

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