Historical perspectives of ankle arthroscopy

Ankle arthroscopy is a relatively recent specialty. This is because technology lacked the expertise to develop instrumentation small enough to be used effectively within a restricted joint space. This caused primary attention to be focused upon the larger knee joint, but both the knee and ankle had their common arthroscopic origin. This includes simple specula and crude cystoscopes and endoscopes. The lighting ranged from mere reflected sunlight, to wax candles, to crude burning filaments, to simple gas and electric lamps. Early workers included prism and lens grinders, optical physicists, and a host of other scientific specialists. This presentation includes many of the important pioneers and their contributions, as well as a chronicle of arthroscopy's most primitive roots and its transcendency into an accurate surgical instrument.