Franklin D. Roosevelt: His Poliomyelitis and Orthopaedics

Abstract

Following World War II, the number of orthopaedic surgeons rapidly increased and the specialty expanded to include the treatment of fresh fractures. Many factors contributed to this development. This article discusses the contributions of Franklin D. Roosevelt to the growth of orthopaedic surgery. From the earliest time in recorded history, surgeons followed armies to treat their battle injuries. The orthopaedic surgeons of the nineteenth century treated musculoskeletal deformities; infections, particularly tuberculosis of bones and joints; and the complications of trauma, especially in children, but they did not engage in the treatment of acute trauma. Their knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of bones and joints provided them with the opportunity to use their skills to treat those needing rehabilitation during World War I. As they became proficient in this role, they also became involved in the acute treatment of fractures. In his presidential address at the Seventy-fourth Annual Meeting of the American Orthopaedic Association (AOA) in 1961, Edward F. Cave stated, “Orthopaedic surgery was reborn and expanded during and after World War I, largely because trauma to the extremities became a part of orthopaedic surgery for the first time.”1 Later in the address, Cave stated, “World War II changed all of this. The sections of orthopaedic surgery in military hospitals often represented the largest divisions on the surgical services. Surgical teams sent to the forward areas were staffed by orthopaedic surgeons…. If the development of orthopaedic surgery was enhanced by World War I, it was expanded tenfold by the experience gained in the War of 1939–45, thanks in no small measure to one of our members, the late Major General Norman T. Kirk, who was at that time the Surgeon General of the Army.” In 1940, prior to the American entry into the war, the American Academy of Orthopaedic …