Ernest Adolph Gustav GottfriedSTRÜMPELL

Who’s Who in Orthopedics

Ernest Adolph Gustav Gottfried STRÜMPELL

1853–1925

Ernest Adolph Gustav Gottfried Strümpell of Leipzig published a two-volume edition of the Lehrbuch der Speciellen Pathology and Therapie der inneren Krankheiten in 1883–1884. He was among the leading internists and pathologists of his generation. The masterpiece went through more than 30 editions, translated into several lan- guages, with the first in English appearing in 1887. The volumes are still valid references in pathology with a wealth of forgotten and redis- covered musculoskeletal material pertinent to contemporary studies. His name is eponymic with spondylitic syndrome.

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Georg Friedrich Louis STROMEYER

1804–1876

Georg Friedrich Louis Stromeyer of Hanover, at times professor at various German universities and surgeon general of the Hanoverian army, was one of the most powerful influences in develop- ing the surgical aspects of orthopedic surgery in the mid-nineteenth century. His outstanding con- tribution was the popularizing of subcutaneous tenotomy and the encouragement of its practice throughout the western surgical world. Although in the preface to his masterful and influential book, he gives credit to his predecessors who attempted the procedure sporadically, Stromeyer applied it to deformities wherever contracted tendons were approachable by the method. To appreciate the importance of subcutaneous teno- tomy, the horrendous proportion and devastating effects of open surgery in pre-Listerian days must be kept in mind. As becomes obvious in this preface, the technic of Stromeyer’s procedure was used as a wedge for the development of muscu- loskeletal surgery vis-a-vis the brace and stretch- ing era of the early days of our specialty. His first paper on the subject was published in 1833;

however, the classic of Stromeyer was his book

on Operative Orthopedics.