Über den Bruch des Schenkelbeinhalses überhaupt, und Insbesondere eine neue Methode, denselben ohne hinken au heilen

Würzburg: Johann Jacob Stapels, 1789. FIRST EDITION. With 4 folding copper engravings (3 double-page) with 9 numbered figures. Original wrappers, top detached; text unopened, unmarked, minor foxing. An excellent copy of a rare work. First edition of the author’s monograph on femoral neck fractures and their surgical remedies. This very early operative treatment pre-dates modern methods of hip surgery and replacement by over fifty years. According to Anderson, “modern hip surgery only became feasible after 1847 with the introduction of anaesthesia and antiseptic practices. It was not until 1956 when Watson-Jones developed a technique of arthrodesis of the hip involving guide wires and nails driven through the femoral head, the femoral neck and into the ball joint.

Brünninghausen (1761-1834) studied medicine at the George August University of Göttingen and the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, where he was appointed professor of wound medicine. In time he had the overall supervision of all surgeons in Würzburg. This is his first monograph.

OCLC locates 4 copies in America (Chicago, NLM, Minnesota, Texas); Anderson, History of Hip Surgery (https://musculoskeletalkey.com/a-history-of-hip-surgery/); Watson-Jones, “Arthrodesis of the osteoarthritic hip joint” in Journal of Bone Joint Surgery Br., February, 1956, 38-B(1), pp. 353-377; not in Garrison & Morton.