The Vienna heritage of Iowa orthopaedics

Strong traditions of basic research, clinical innovation, teaching and integrating science and evaluation of outcomes into clinical practice have characterized University of Iowa orthopaedics for ninety years. These traditions were brought to Iowa City from Vienna when Iowa City was a town of fewer than 10,000 people in a sparcely populated rural state. In the last third of the 19th century, surgeons at the University of Vienna, led by Theodore Billroth (1829-1894), helped transform the practice of surgery. They developed new more effective procedures, analyzed the results of their operations, promoted the emergence and growth of surgical specialties and sought understanding of tissue structure, physiology and pathophysiology. Their efforts made Vienna one of the world's most respected centers for operative treatment, basic and clinical research and surgical education. Two individuals who followed Billroth, Eduard Albert (1841-1900) and Adolf Lorenz (1854-1946) focussed their research and clinical practice on orthopaedics. Their successes in the study and treatment of musculoskeletal disorders led one of their students, Arthur Steindler (1878-1959), a 1902 graduate of the Vienna Medical School, to pursue a career in orthopaedics. Following medical school, he worked in Lorenz's orthopaedic clinic until 1907 when he joined John Ridlon (1852-1936) at the Chicago Home for Crippled Children. In 1910, Steindler became Professor of Orthopaedics at the Drake Medical School in Des Moines, Iowa, and, in 1913, John G. Bowman, the President of the University of Iowa, recruited him to establish an orthopaedic clinical and academic program in Iowa City. For the next third of a century he guided the development of the University of Iowa Orthopaedics Department, helped establish the fields of orthopaedic biomechanics and kinesiology and tirelessly stressed the importance of physiology, pathology and assessment of the outcomes of operations. From the legacy of Billroth, Albert and Lorenz, Arthur Steindler created an internationally recognized center for orthopaedic care, research and teaching in Iowa City.