The classic. Arthrodesing operations on the feet: Edwin W. Ryerson,M. D.

The concept of stabilizing paralytic or otherwise deformed joints by surgical fusion started with Eduard Albert of Vienna in the latter 19th century. His classic paper on arthrodesis of the knee appeared in its first English translation in this journal in 1946 (No. 34) (see Classics of Orthopaedics, Phila. J. B. Lippincott Co., 1976). However before his success in the knee in 1882, he had attempted fusion of the tarsus. Immediately following Albert's publication, attempts at fusion of the tarsus were published by Golding-Bird in England, Ogston of Scotland, and many others up to Gwilyn G. Davis of Philadelphia in 1913 whose subtalar arthrodesis became the popular procedure for a decade and seriously competed with Royal Whitman's astragelectomy. In 1923 Edwin W. Ryerson of Chicago (1872-1961) designed a surgical procedure for which he used the term triple arthrodesis. This operation, with minor modifications, became standard and except for the basic concept of Albert, remains among the classics in this subject. It was a relatively frequent procedure when polio was a world-wide orthopedic problem, but has continued a valuable part of the armamentarium of foot surgery whenever trauma or other cause leaves a painful deformed foot.