HISTORY OF ORTHOPEDICS IN IRAN

In the old days, fractures and dislocations in Iran were managed by the local bonesetters who were not physicians, and learned this profession from their ancestors. After establishment of the Tehran Medical School in 1935,1 and departments of general surgery, the patients were gradually referred to the general surgeons in place of the bonesetters. The surgeons used to manage these fractures by closed reduction and plaster fixation. In addition to management of fractures and dislocations the general surgeons used to perform other procedures, for example amputation of the limbs in malignant bone tumors and gangrenes, drainage of abscesses in the limbs, and application of plaster casts for treatment of the tuberculosis of the limbs and spin. There was no separate subject as orthopedics in the curriculum of medical schools. Fractures, dislocations, and infections of the bones and joints were thought by the general surgeons.