Arthroplasty of the Elbow

Willis Cohoon Campbell was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1880. He received his undergraduate training in his home state and medical training at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, where he graduated in 1924 [5]. After serving a two-year internship, he went into private practice in Memphis, Tennessee. As with other prominent orthopaedic surgeons (Ryerson among them), he visited medical centers in Europe, particularly London and Vienna. He evidently then spent some time in postgraduate work in New York City prior to returning to private practice in Memphis. (Most formal residencies were not established until the 1930s coincident with the formation of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery in 1934, although many doctors took “postgraduate” work following one or two years of internship in general medicine or surgery.) In 1910, he was asked to organize a Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Tennessee Medical School as the first Professor of Orthopaedics, a post he held until his death.

In addition to forming a department for the university, Campbell helped establish one of the first hospitals for crippled children in the south, then the Willis Cohoon Campbell Clinic in 1920 [1], and finally in 1923 the Hospital for Crippled Adults. The Campbell clinic provided postgraduate training, meeting the requirements of the American Board for the Certification of Specialists. Dr. Campbell, while not one of the original nine board members of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery, was influential in establishing the Board in 1934. According to Wickstrom [4], a “…persistent rumor, repeatedly denied, held that Henderson (Melvin) and Campbell were the primary movers behind the establishment of both the American Academy of Orthopaedic surgeons and the American Board in Orthopaedic Surgery; their actions were said to be a retaliatory response to their rejection by the orthopaedic establishment ‘in the East.’” Be that as it may, Dr. Campbell served as President of a number of professional organizations [1]. He published many papers and three monographs, including the classic “Operative Orthopaedics” [3], which has gone through 10 editions, was the standard textbook for orthopaedic surgeons for decades and remains one of the most widely read references. Dr. Campbell was widely known as a kind, courteous man [5].

The article reproduced here describes arthroplasty of the elbow to restore motion to ankylosed joints [2]. In this article Campbell recognized some of the described resection arthroplasties (usually with interposition of various materials) left the elbow unstable and weak. He advocated creating a “double flap” of the triceps aponeurosis and underlying periosteum and suturing that to the anterior capsule of the elbow after resecting bone. This, he suggested, allowed functional motion within 6 months in the two cases he described. Interestingly, in his “Operative Orthopaedics” published in 1939, he recommends covering the exposed bony surfaces with fascia lata, and does not describe attaching the flap of the triceps to the anterior capsule, but rather suggests attaching “at a lower point than its former attachment to permit free play of the joint in flexion” [3].