Hugh Owen Thomas was a Welsh surgeon

Surgeon

In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...

. He is considered the father of orthopaedic surgery

Orthopedic surgery

Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system...

 in Britain.

Early life

Hugh Owen Thomas descended from a young boy who had been shipwrecked in Anglesey

Anglesey

Anglesey , also known by its Welsh name Ynys Môn , is an island and, as Isle of Anglesey, a county off the north west coast of Wales...

 in 1745. Given the name Evan Thomas by the family that adopted and raised him, he established a family tradition of bone-setting. Evan Thomas — the grandson of the original survivor, and Hugh’s father — had moved to Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

 at the age of 19, where he set up a successful practice as bone-setter. Evan, however, was not a trained physician, and three times he was taken to court to defend his practice. Although he was never convicted, the constant jealousy and antagonism of the medical community was a great toll on him; at one point his cottage was even burnt down. As a result of this, he decided to send all his five sons to train and qualify as doctors.

Professional career

Hugh trained first with his uncle, Dr. Owen Roberts at St. Asaph in North Wales

North Wales

North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...

 for four years, then he studied medicine at Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

 and University College

University College London

University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. He qualified as MRCS

Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons

MRCS is a professional qualification for surgeons in the UK and IrelandIt means Member of the Royal College of Surgeons. In the United Kingdom, doctors who gain this qualification traditionally no longer use the title 'Dr' but start to use the title 'Mr', 'Mrs', 'Miss' or 'Ms'.There are 4 surgical...

 in 1857. Returning to Liverpool, he first worked with his father, but incompatible temperaments did not allow this for long, so in 1859 he set up his own practice in the poorer part of town.
Hugh was known as an eccentric and rather temperamental man. A rumour had it that he would attack victims himself, and break their bones, in order to have patients on which to practice. He was short; just over five feet tall, always wore a black coat buttoned all the way up, a patch over one eye, and constantly had a cigarette in his mouth. Among the poor people of Liverpool though, he stood in great esteem. He practiced from his home in No. 11, Nelson Street, where he worked all day from five or six in the morning, and every Sunday he would treat patients for free.

Medical Legacy

His contribution to British orthopaedics was manifold. In the treatment of fracture

Fracture

A fracture is the separation of an object or material into two, or more, pieces under the action of stress.The word fracture is often applied to bones of living creatures , or to crystals or crystalline materials, such as gemstones or metal...

s and tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

 he advocated rest, which should be 'enforced, uninterrupted and prolonged'. In order to achieve this he created the so-called 'Thomas Splint', which would stabilise a fractured femur and prevent infection. He is also responsible for numerous other medical innovations that all carry his name: 'Thomas's collar' to treat tuberculosis of the cervical spine, 'Thomas's manoeuvre', an orthopaedic investigation for fracture of the hip joint, Thomas test

Thomas test

The Thomas test is a physical examination test, named after Dr. Hugh Owen Thomas , a British orthopaedic surgeon, used to rule out hip flexion contracture. The patient lies supine on the examination table and brings one knee in direction to the chest, while the other leg remains extended...

, a method of detecting hip deformity by having the patient lying flat in bed, 'Thomas's wrench' for reducing fractures, as well as an osteoclast to break and reset bones. His work was never fully appreciated in his own lifetime, but when his nephew, Sir Robert Jones, applied his splint during the First World War

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, this reduced mortality of compound fractures of the femur

Femur

The femur , or thigh bone, is the most proximal bone of the leg in tetrapod vertebrates capable of walking or jumping, such as most land mammals, birds, many reptiles such as lizards, and amphibians such as frogs. In vertebrates with four legs such as dogs and horses, the femur is found only in...

 from 80% to less than 8% in the period from 1916 to 1918.

Literature

• Aitken, D. McCrae, Hugh Owen Thomas: His Principles and Practice (London, Oxford university press, 1935)
• Watson, Frederick, Hugh Owen Thomas: A Personal Study (London, Oxford university press, 1934)
• Le Vay, Abraham David, The life of Hugh Owen Thomas (Edinburgh, 1956)
• McMurray, Thomas Porter
  Thomas Porter McMurray
  Thomas Porter McMurray was a British orthopaedic surgeon remembered for describing the McMurray test.- Biography :...
  
  , The life of Hugh Owen Thomas: Centenary Lecture Delivered at the Liverpool Medical Institution (1935)

Works

• Diseases of the hip, knee and ankle joints (1876)
• A review of the past and present treatment of disease in the hip, knee, and ankle joints: With their deformities (1878)
• The past and present treatment of intestinal obstructions (1879)
• The treatment of fractures of the lower jaw (1881)
• Intestinal disease and obstruction (1883)
• Nerve inhibition and its relation to the practice of medicine (1883)
• Principles of the treatment of diseased joints (1883)
• The collegian of 1666 and the collegians of 1885: Or, what is recognised treatment? (1885)
• The principles of the treatment of fractures and dislocations (1886)
• Fractures, dislocations, diseases and deformities of the bones of the trunk and upper extremities (1887)
• A new lithotomy operation (1888)
• An argument with the censor at St. Luke's Hospital, New York (1889)
• Fractures, dislocations, deformities and diseases of the lower extremities (1890)
• Lithotomy (1890)

External links

• Hugh Owen Thomas History of Surgeons - surgeons.org.uk
• Biography at Surgical Tutor
• Biography at Who Named It?