Individuals with fractured leg bones, often need pins, pulleys, and plaster to hold the two ends of the broken bone, close-together. As patients with this intricate system are made to lie, their legs are raised-up on a small platform placed on the bed. The frame with the platform, pulleys and triangulated bars owes its origin to an Austrian surgeon Lorenz Bohler. The frame itself is named Böhler-Braun frame or a BB splint.
Early training and interest in Fracture healing
Böhler was born in 1885, and when he was still in school in 1896 the world of bones was revolutionized with the discovery of X-rays. While it was now possible to see bones, it took many years for them to become part of more scientific bone-healing. Böhler was admitted to prestigious Vienna medical school in 1905, and completed his medical education in 1911.
Three years later, he became interested in fracture-healing, an area that only had a handful of experts. His visit to Mayo’s clinic in Rochester was a turning point, where he was recommended to visit two fracture healing clinics that existed at that time, one in London and another in Liverpool. The same year in 1914, the First World War took him to battlefield, where he started treating soldiers with injuries and fractures. By end of the war in 1918, Böhler had become a self-taught expert in management of fractures. By his own estimate he had treated about 30,000 injured soldiers by then.
Contributions to traumatology
In 1929, Böhler brought out his famous textbook “The treatment of fractures“. Initially his methods were met with a cold reception, as his book did not find any publishers. He self-funded its first edition, and continued to improve it. He continued to work in Vienna during the second world war, and also joined the Nazi party as did many other professionals of the time. Yet, he continued to head AUVA hospital after the war, as well as retained his academic affiliations at Vienna Medical school. By 1957, his book had been translated to 14 languages, and was widely read across the world.
Regarded as founder father of traumatology, a couple of orthopedic terminologies are named after him (Bohler angle, Bohler frame, Bohler Iron). He changed the way fractured limb was viewed before him, and brought about the concept of “saving a limb”.
His concepts became a foundation for a standardized scientific fracture care. He extensively documented his treatments, serial radiographs, functional improvements, and in the process all the splints and devices he used. In a way, he also made fracture treatment to be uniform and scalable.
