Article

Classic article published here brought to the attention of the orthopaedic community the relationship between congenital spinal deformities and congenital renal abnormalities. Dr. MacEwen and his co-authors, Drs. Winter and Hardy, assembled a large group of patients (n = 231) with anomalies such as hemivertebrae and congenital rib fusions, and with appropriate studies they showed the high prevalence of renal abnormalities in these individuals. One third of these patients had unilateral renal agenesis. Other anomalies included Ureteropelvic duplications and congenital hydronephrosis. Dr. MacEwen and his co-authors showed the importance of considering the possibility of Such a relationship before undertaking surgical treatment of congenital scoliosis and kyphosis. In fact, they urged spine surgeons to obtain a baseline intravenous pyelogram in all patients with congenital spinal deformities. This paper, however, is only one of a number of classic contributions made by Dr. MacEwen to the orthopaedic literature. Indeed, the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery recently republished one of Dr. MacEwen's papers that originally appeared in 1976: Congenital Dislocation of the Hip: Use of the Pavlik Harness in the Child During the First Six Months of Life.(1) That seminal paper changed the way orthopedists have treated developmental dysplasia of the hip in infants and it provided logical reasons for adopting the newer method. The many classic papers by Dr. MacEwen including the two just mentioned represent an extraordinary opus and important lifetime contributions to the practice of orthopaedic Surgery. Dr. MacEwen was born November 10, 1927. He spent much of his career at the Alfred I. DuPont Institute in Wilmington, Delaware (25 years, in fact). He also has served at the Children's Hospital in New Orleans and currently practices at the Philadelphia Shriners Hospital. He finished medical school at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario in 1953 and did his orthopaedic residency in orthopaedics at the Campbell Clinic in Germantown, Tennessee 1958. He lives in the historic town of New Castle, Delaware.

Langue : ANGLAIS