Excellence in orthopaedic surgery: an overview of Nobel Prize nominees 1901-1960 with focus on Friedrich Pauwels and Gerhard Küntscher.

PURPOSE

This paper provides for the first time an overview of orthopaedic surgeons nominated for the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine during the first six decades of the twentieth century. The study is part of the project "Enacting Excellency: Nobel Prize nominations for surgeons 1901-1960".

METHODS

The nomination letters were gathered in the archive of the Nobel Committee at the Karolinska Institute in Solna, Sweden.

RESULTS

Among the nominees, we find renowned scholars like Pierre Delbet, Themistocles Gluck, Gerhard Küntscher, Adolf Lorenz, Friedrich Pauwels, Leslie Rush, and Marius Smith-Petersen. The focus of the paper is on nominations for Pauwels (work on biomechanics) and Küntscher (the Küntscher nail). Both were nominated by German surgeons.

CONCLUSIONS

Although no orthopaedic surgeon has yet received a Nobel Prize for an orthopaedic achievement, Nobel archive files can help reconstruct important trends in the field during the twentieth century.