On Necrosis of the Joint Cartilage by Epiphyseolysis Capitis Femoris

Abstract

Henning Waldenström's (Fig 1) life, nearly a century long, spanned the development of orthopaedic surgery in Sweden from a subdivision of general surgery to an important and large specialty in its own right. He came from a medical family. His father was the first professor of surgery at the university in Uppsala, and his grandfather and brother were physicians. His professional career was spent entirely in Stockholm, where he received his education and thorough training in surgery. His first important appointment was as the chief surgeon to the Clinic for Tuberculosis of the Bones and Joints at St Göran Hospital. From the beginning of his career in 1910, he insisted on defining his work as orthopaedic surgery, although the professorships in this specialty were not so designated until 1960. When he was 58 years old, Waldenstrom became the chief of orthopaedics at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. In this position, he had great influence on the development of orthopaedic surgery as a specialty not only in Sweden but also throughout Scandinavia. Waldenström was 1 of the founders of SICOT (Societe Internationale de Chirurgie Orthopedique et Traumatologie) and was well known by all the leading orthopaedic surgeons of his generation. Waldenström had a great interest in diseases of the hip in children. His name sometimes is coupled with those of Legg, Calvé, and Perthes for his description of this familiar condition. In The Classic article, Waldenström describes a peculiar and unusual condition that occurs in association with slipped capital femoral epiphysis.