Orthopaedic surgery

Orthopedic surgery
Intervention
This fracture of the lower cervical vertebrae, known as a "teardrop fracture", is one of the conditions treated by orthopedic surgeons and neurosurgeons.
MeSH	D019637
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Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics (alternatively spelled orthopaedic surgery and orthopaedics) is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal trauma, spine diseases, sports injuries, degenerative diseases, infections, tumors, and congenital disorders.

Nicholas Andry coined the word "orthopædics" in French as orthopédie, derived from the Greek words ὀρθός orthos ("correct", "straight") and παιδίον paidion ("child"), when he published Orthopedie (translated as Orthopædia: or the Art of Correcting and Preventing Deformities in Children) in 1741. Though as the name implies it was initially developed with attention to children, the correction of spinal and bony deformities in all stages of life eventually became the cornerstone of orthopedic practice.

As with many words derived with the "æ" ligature, simplification to either "ae" or just "e" is common. In the US the majority of college, university and residency programs, and even the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, still use the spelling with the Latinate digraph ae. Elsewhere, usage is not uniform; in Canada, both spellings are acceptable; orthopaedics usually prevails in the rest of the British Commonwealth, especially in the UK.

Many developments in orthopedic surgery have resulted from experiences during wartime. On the battlefields of the Middle Ages the injured were treated with bandages soaked in horses' blood which dried to form a stiff, but unsanitary, splint.