ArtiFacts: Bernhard Heine's Osteotome.

W hen Bernhard Heine (1800–1846) was just 10years-old, his parents sent him to his uncle’s workshop in Wurzburg, Germany to begin an apprenticeship as an orthopaedic technician. He was in good hands. His uncle, Johann G. Heine, is widely considered the founder of orthopaedics in Germany [3, 4, 9], having opened the Caroline Institute (KarolinenInstitut, named after the Bavarian Queen Caroline), the first orthopaedic institution in Germany, in 1816. Johann’s renowned workshop in Wurzburg manufactured artificial limbs, wheelchairs, and other orthopaedic devices. Like his uncle Johann, Bernhard Heine had a natural talent for crafting orthopaedic devices, but lacked a formal medical education. Instead, Bernhard Heine attended anatomical lectures and surgical demonstrations. At the age of 20, he traveled the world to further his medical education [9]. Upon his return, Heine practiced medicine and surgery, specializing in orthopaedic surgery. He designed and built many of his own instruments and appliances, but none as important or widely renowned as the chain osteotome, which he developed in 1830. Heine’s design, similar to the modern chainsaw, cut through bone quickly, without the patient enduring blows from a hammer and chisel or jarring from a regular amputation saw—an important advancement at a time when anesthesia was rarely employed. Surgeons could perform resections and even craniotomies without leaving bone splinters or damaging surrounding tissue [5, 6]. The example held by the National Museum of Health and Medicine, however, illustrates the complexity of the instrument (Fig. 1). Several guards on the saw could be configured to minimize the cutting surface and prevent soft-tissue damage. A rod with a screw tip served as a pivot for craniotomies. The saw required considerable skill to use, and few could wield it as well as Heine. Still, the invention brought great fame to Heine. In 1835, he was awarded the prestigious Monthyon Prize by the Academie Francaise. He then spent 6 months in Russia demonstrating the instrument as a guest of the Czar [4]. Osteotomes were manufactured in Germany by Bernard Heine and in France by Charriere et Fils. George Tiemann and Co. of New York, eager to A Note from the Editor-in-Chief: We are pleased to present our latest ArtiFacts column. In each installation, the Collections Manager of theHistorical CollectionsDivision of the National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM) will present a photograph of a visually or historically interesting artifact from the museum’s collection, and provide the story behind the picture. Now a National Historic Landmark, the NMHM was originally developed from the Army Medical Museum, which was established during the Civil War to collect ‘‘specimens of morbid anatomy together with projectiles and foreign bodies removed.’’ Its mission today is to inspire interest in, and promote the understanding of, medicine to the public. The author certifies that he, or any member of his immediate family, has no funding or commercial associations (eg, consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/ licensing arrangements, etc.) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article. All ICMJE Conflict of Interest Forms for authors andClinical Orthopaedics and Related Research editors and board members are on file with the publication and can be viewed on request. The opinions expressed are those of the writers, and do not reflect the opinion or policy of CORR or The Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons. The opinions or assertions herein are those of the author and do not represent the views of the Department of the Army, Navy or Air Force or of the Department of Defense. A. J. Hawk BA (&) National Museum of Health and Medicine, Defense Health Agency, 2460 Linden Lane, Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA e-mail: alan.j.hawk.civ@mail.mil ArtiFacts Published online: 4 January 2016 The Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons1 2015