tion in the area of acute treatment of trauma to the spine. He also supervised the construction of a heliport so that patients who had acute injuries of the spine could be transported more quickly to the hospital for emergency treatment. In 1973, he visited the two men considered to be the world’s leaders in the treatment of spinal disorders: Ralph Cloward, in Honolulu, and Arthur R. Hodgson, in Hong Kong. His interest in the pathology of the spine, including tumors, infections, and degener- ative problems was stimulated even more.
In October 1976, Raymond became chief of orthopedics and traumatology at l’Hôpital de la Pitié-Salpétrière. He succeeded Sicard and in turn was succeeded by Saillant. While in this position, Raymond was responsible for many innovative ideas, particularly pertaining to techniques for operations on the spine.
Raymond never actually considered himself a spine surgeon per se but, more appropriately, an orthopedic and trauma surgeon. He recalled being told by Fevre, a general surgeon, that “if you want to do something interesting, you must do some- thing which is difficult and that nobody else wants to do.”
The concept of placing a screw in the pedicle emerged in 1963, when Raymond managed a 17- year-old girl who had severe dislocation of the fourth and fifth lumbar vertebrae and cauda equina syndrome as the result of a traffic accident.
She had had a laminectomy previously at another hospital, performed by the neurosurgical team.
The fourth lumbar vertebra was still dislocated in the lateral position on the fifth lumbar vertebra and the spine was obviously quite unstable.
Raymond stated:
The reduction was easy, but I had no more spinous processes. I had no more laminae, and the wires and Wilson plates we had at this time were not helpful. So I had to do something. I tried to stabilize the spine with two Scherman plates, implanting screws where I could.
I was an anatomist and I knew about the pedicle; I understood immediately that a good location to have an implant fixed to the spine was the pedicle. That is how I started with this surgery the first time.
Raymond introduced spinal plating and pedicle-screw fixation to the United States when he was the presidential guest speaker at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons in San Francisco in 1979. He had been invited to speak by the president of the Academy, Mason Hohl.
Raymond established many international bridges throughout the world as he traveled to lecture on problems of the spine. This was best exemplified by his collaboration with Carroll A.
Laurin and Lee H. Riley, Jr. in editing the three- volume Atlas of Orthopedic Surgery, published in 1989. He was the author of many articles and books. His extensive memberships included an honorary membership in the North American Spine Society. He was an enthusiastic member of the Cervical Spine Research Society and helped to found the European branch, further enhancing the international bridge. His quest for building a bridge of knowledge between Europe and North America was also demonstrated by his hosting of the International Meeting on Spinal Osteosynthe- sis in December 1992.
Raymond and his wife, Chantal, were married in Toulouse in 1976. Their life was accentuated by Raymond’s work and travels, as well as his love for hunting. They had many friends and a very busy social life, which they both enjoyed greatly. Raymond died on July 14, 1994, being survived by his wife and a daughter, Julie.
291
Who’s Who in Orthopedics
Lowry Rush J.H.Rush Leslie Rush
Leslie V. RUSH
1905–
Nowhere is the old adage, “necessity is the mother of invention,” validated more frequently in surgery than in the surgery of trauma. In 1936, an encounter with a badly comminuted and con- taminated open Monteggia fracture–dislocation of the elbow demonstrated the value of intra- medullary fixation to two innovative young Mississippi surgeons, Leslie V. Rush and H.
Lowry Rush. They were able to stabilize and heal a segmental fracture of the ulna by using an
intramedullary Steinmann pin. Satisfied with their result, but not with the pin itself, they pursued an interest in the problem of intramedullary fixation, which led to the development of a new type of pin and a technique for using the pin in a wide variety of fractures. They pointed out the value of using straight pins in curved bones and curved pins in straight bones to obtain better fixation. They were the first surgeons in the United States to have an impact on and to make a substantial contribution to the technique of intramedullary fixation.
Their father, J.H. Rush (1868–1931), was a native Mississipian who established his surgical practice in Meridian, Mississippi, in 1910, after previously practicing there as a dentist. His sons joined him in his practice. H. Lowry Rush (1897–1965) was a medical graduate of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, and while he assisted his brother Leslie with the fracture work, his main interest was in gynecological surgery. Leslie V.
Rush, was born in 1905 and obtained his medical education at Tulane University. He practiced general surgery with an emphasis on trauma and a continuing interest in the treatment of fractures for 55 years.
ing to Garrison and Morton, this is, if not the first, one of the first pathologic descriptions of osteonecrosis in medical literature. It was widely read in its day and its importance is attested to by the title page, which in itself is of some biblio- philic interest. It had been the property of the New York Hospital library (the oldest in New York City) and came from them to the then newly created New York Academy of Medicine library in the latter half of the nineteenth century. It should be called to the reader’s attention that osteonecrosis in Russell’s day was chiefly septic and the distinction between septic and aseptic necrosis was not emphasized until Axhausen’s work some more than half a century later.
292 Who’s Who in Orthopedics
James RUSSELL
1755–1836
James Russell was the first professor of clinical surgery at the University of Edinburgh. In 1794 he published a book on Necrosis of Bone. Accord-
Robert Hamilton RUSSELL
1860–1933
Robert Hamilton Russell was born in England and received his medical education at King’s College, London. There, he came under the influence of Joseph Lister, for whom he worked as a house officer. He also visited hospitals on the Continent.
After obtaining his qualifications as a surgeon, Russell practiced in London for 2 years before emigrating to Australia. As one of his associates, C.H. Fagge wrote: “He never told us why he was going to leave England, but we knew that he went to the beautiful climate of Australia to escape from a fear of tuberculosis.” Although he made occasional trips to the United States and Europe,
