Maurice E. Müller – författare

The history of the origin and development of the new Classification of Fractures was described in the preface to the French edition. The history of the acceptance of this new concept dates back to 1986, when the Swiss Association for the Study of the Problems of Internal Fixation (AO) accepted the new Classification of Fractures. In the same year, the Trustees of the AO/ASIF Foundation, at their annual meeting in Montreux, adopted the new AO Classification as the basis for fracture classification to be used in the planned third edition of the AO/ASIF Manual. In August 1987, the French edition of "The Comprehensive Classification of Fractures of Long Bones" made its first appearance, coincident with the Congress of the International Society of Orthopaedic Surgery (SICOn in Munich. This precipitated a great deal of interest in the subject. This interest persisted, so that in February of 1988 the President of SICOT, Sir Dennis Paterson, formed a "Presidential Commission for Documentation and Evaluation" with Maurice E. Muller as Chairman.

In the early 1950s, the pioneering work of Robert Danis on operative treatment of fractures was in danger of falling into oblivion. Maurice E. Muller, impressed and intrigued by his contacts with Danis, first critically applied internal fixation and immediate mobilization to some 80 patients and found the basic concept confirmed, but in need of further develop- ment with regard to technology, clinical application, and scientific analysis. In 1958 he assembled a group of friends, general and orthopedic surgeons, willing to invest time and effort in helping to create the necessary armamentarium and to form a study group for clinical trials. This group was set up in the same year under the name Arbeitsgemein- schaft fiir Osteosynthesefragen (AO), later on to be known in English-speaking countries as the Association for the Study of Internal Fixation (ASIF). The first report on operative treatment of fractures by Muller, Allgower, and Willeneg- ger, published in 1963, stressed the advantages of early open reduction and internal fixa- tion. This book, first published in German, amusingly lost an important part when trans- lated into English.At the suggestion of worried American and English partp. ers, a picture series showing the healing pattern of 188 tibial fractures operated on in Chur between December 20, 1961 and April26, 1962 was left out.

The history of the origin and development of the new Classification of Fractures was described in the preface to the French edition. The history of the acceptance of this new concept dates back to 1986, when the Swiss Association for the Study of the Problems of Internal Fixation (AO) accepted the new Classification of Fractures. In the same year, the Trustees of the AO/ASIF Foundation, at their annual meeting in Montreux, adopted the new AO Classification as the basis for fracture classification to be used in the planned third edition of the AO/ASIF Manual. In August 1987, the French edition of "The Comprehensive Classification of Fractures of Long Bones" made its first appearance, coincident with the Congress of the International Society of Orthopaedic Surgery (SICOn in Munich. This precipitated a great deal of interest in the subject. This interest persisted, so that in February of 1988 the President of SICOT, Sir Dennis Paterson, formed a "Presidential Commission for Documentation and Evaluation" with Maurice E. Muller as Chairman.

The first part of this manual deals with the experimental and scientific basis and the principles of the AOjASIF method of stable internal fixation. It deals with the function and main use of the different AO implants, the use of the different AO instruments, and with the essentials of the operative technique and of postoperative care. It also discusses the handling of the most important postoperative complications. The second part deals at length with the AO recommendations for the operative treatment of the most common closed fractures in the adult. This has been organized in anatomical sequence. The discussion of the closed fractures is followed by a discus­ sion of open fractures in the adult, then by fractures in children and finally by pathological fractures. The third part presents, in a condensed fashion, the application of stable internal fixation to reconstructive bone surgery. 1 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 1 Aims and Fundamental Principles of the AO Method The Chief Aim of Fracture Treatment is the Full Recovery of the Injured Limb In every fracture there is a combination of damage to both the soft tissues and to bone. Immediately after the fracture and during the phase of repair, we see certain local circulatory disturbances, certain manifestations of local inflammation, as well as pain and reflex splinting. These three factors, that is, circulatory disturbances, inflammation and pain, when combined with the defunctioning of bone, joints and muscle, result in the so-called jl''acture disease.