Aguayo GLM

Language: Spanish
References: 7
Page: 55-58
PDF size: 155.49 Kb.

ABSTRACT

Robert William Smith is best known for his description of what is now known as the Inverted Smith or Colles fracture, a supination fracture of the distal radius. However, like many notable physicians, whose names are linked to some medical and surgical conditions, his contribution to medicine was far greater than the single description of a specific entity. It is striking that knowing the previous work published posthumously in 1783 by Claude Pouteau on the pronation fracture of the distal radius, since Robert William Smith was an accomplished linguist, he did not designate it by that name; In French literature this fracture is known as the Pouteau-Colles fracture. In 1847, he published his book "A Treatise on Fractures in the Vicinity of Joint and on Certain Forms of Accidental and Congenital Dislocations". Dublin: Hodges & Smith. Robert William Smith when editing his 1847 book scored. "It is, I believe, the duty of every person who undertakes to write on a particular subject, familiarize himself, as far as possible, and acknowledge the work of those who may have preceded him in the same field". During his time, RW Smith was a renowned physician. Even across the Atlantic Ocean from his native Ireland, the American Journal of Medical Sciences wrote that his treatise on fractures "may be considered one of our best models for making surgical observations". He also wrote in 1849 about the disease today known as neurofibromatosis (type I), 33 years before Friedrich Daniel von Recklinghausen published it in 1882. He worked alongside medical giants like Abraham Colles, Robert Adams, William Stokes, Robert James Graves, and Dominic Corrigan, all of them Irish physicians.

REFERENCES

1. Peltier LF. Fractures: a history and iconography of their treatment, Norman Publishing, San Francisco CA, Second Printing 1999, pp. 42-44.

2. Rang M. The story of orthopaedics, W.B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia PA, Third Edition, 2000, pp 234-235, 405-406.

3. Shah HM, Chung KC. Robert William Smith: his life and his contributions to medicine. J Hand Surg Am. 2008; 33 (6): 948-951.

4. Smith RW. A treatise on fractures in the vicinity of joints, and on certain forms of accidental and congenital dislocations. Dublin, Hodges and Smith, 1847.

5. Lee TC. A trinity of Eponymus surgeons II-Robert William Smith (1807-1873) & Smith's fracture of the radius (1847) University of Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Journal. 2005-2006; 18: 89-91.

6. Colles A. On the fracture of the carpal extremity of the radius. Published in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal. 1814; 10 (38): 182-186.

7. Cameron CA. History of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and of the Irish schools of Medicine including Numerous Biographical Sketches also a Medical Bibliography. Dublin: Fannin & Company; 1886, p. 810.