Orthopaedic surgeons. Inheritors of tradition.

Abstract

Bonesetting, a most ancient healing art, was absorbed into orthopaedic surgery approximately 120 years ago when Hugh Owen Thomas, a medical doctor specializing in pediatric deformities, assumed his father's nonmedical bonesetting practice. In many nonWestern nations, however, traditional bonesetters continue to treat large numbers of patients. Current market forces in the United States threaten to reduce the role of orthopaedic surgeons in the management of fractures not requiring surgery, leading to the possible reemergence of bonesetting as a separate and independent discipline.