Wiring of patellar fractures by Joseph Lister

Joseph Lister (1827-1912) was the father of modern surgery and, in particular, of today's orthopaedic surgery. Before Lister, surgeons seldom opened into a joint or performed an open operation for failed reduction or malunion of a fracture. Indeed, most surgical teachers condemned such procedures because of the almost invariable complications of wound suppuration, pyaemia prolonged illness and often death.