Carpenter's nails, phonograph needles, piano wires, and safety pins: The history of operative fixation of metacarpal and phalangeal fractures

Abstract

This century has witnessed advances in basic sciences that have led to and resulted from advances in operative fixation of fractures. In addition to the sweeping changes in medicine and surgery, the development of corrosion-resistant alloys underpins all current concepts of fracture surgery. Most of the techniques were originally borrowed from work on large bones and most of the materials came from workshops or sewing boxes. Today, as improved understanding of bone healing and appropriate application of mechanical principles to skeletal injuries have become indispensable for appreciating the relative value of these techniques, operative fixation of hand fractures has emerged as a science in its own right.