Thomas Porter McMurray CBE (5 December 1887, Belfast – 16 November 1949, London) was a British orthopaedic surgeon remembered for describing the McMurray test. [1]
Thomas McMurray graduated from Queen's University, Belfast in 1910, and took up a house job in Liverpool under Sir Robert Jones. He served as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps in France for a short time, returning to the Alder Hey Military Hospital in Liverpool in 1914. He continued his training under Robert Jones, becoming lecturer at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Liverpool from 1924 to 1938, and succeeding Robert Jones as director of orthopaedics. He became the first professor of orthopaedic surgery in Liverpool in 1938.
He was president of the British Orthopaedic Society and the Liverpool Medical Institution, and president-elect of the British Medical Association.
His dexterity as a surgeon was noted; he was able to remove a meniscus in five minutes, and disarticulate a hip in little over ten. As a teacher, he upheld the principles of Hugh Owen Thomas, and built up a postgraduate school of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Liverpool.
He died of a heart attack at a railway station in London while travelling to visit his son in South Africa. [2]
Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal trauma, spine diseases, sports injuries, degenerative diseases, infections, tumors, and congenital disorders.
Dallas Burton Phemister was an American surgeon and researcher who gave his name to several medical terms. During his career, he was the president of the American Surgical Association and the American College of Surgeons, and was a member of the editorial board of the journal Annals of Surgery.
Hugh Owen Thomas was a Welsh orthopaedic surgeon. He and his nephew Robert Jones have been called "the Fathers of orthopaedic surgery".
Hiram Winnett Orr was an American orthopedic surgeon who was born in Pennsylvania and was raised and lived the rest of his life in Nebraska. More than any other person, Orr was responsible for the invention of an effective method of using plaster casts and surgery to achieve a reduction in infection rates during treatment of open fractures and compound fractures before the widespread adoption of antibiotics.
Jack Penn, M.B., Ch.B., F.R.C.S.(E.), Mil. Dec. M.B.E., S.M., was a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, sculptor and author, who was also for a time a member of the President's Council in South Africa.
Melvin Starkey Henderson (1883–1954) was an American orthopedic surgeon, who was born in St. Paul, Minnesota (USA).
Sean Patrick Francis Hughes is emeritus professor of orthopaedic surgery at Imperial College London where he was previously professor of orthopaedic surgery and head of the department of surgery, anaesthetics and intensive care. Earlier in his career he had been professor of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Edinburgh.
Sir Robert Jones, 1st Baronet, was a Welsh orthopaedic surgeon who helped to establish the modern specialty of orthopaedic surgery in Britain.
Sir Alexander Gillies was a New Zealand orthopaedic surgeon who played a major role in establishing orthopaedics as a surgical speciality in New Zealand. One of the first to practise hip replacement in New Zealand, he was prominent in the foundation of the New Zealand Orthopaedic Association and became its first president. He was associated with a number of humanitarian causes including the New Zealand Red Cross Society of which he was chairman and latterly president.
Sir Harry Platt, 1st Baronet, FRCS, KStJ was an English orthopaedic surgeon, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (1954–1957). He was a founder of the British Orthopaedic Association, of which he became president in 1934–1935.
Brigadier Robert Neville Atkinson,, FAMA is an Australian orthopaedic surgeon and retired senior officer of the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps, best known for his contributions to trauma and military surgery.
The treatment of broken bones and dislocated joints can be traced as far back as the Ancient Greeks. Hippocrates is credited with a method of reduction of a dislocated shoulder. 16th century Spanish texts talk about the Aztecs use of reduction of fractures using fir branches. The modern discipline of orthopaedics in trauma care developed during the course of World War I, but it was not until after World War II that orthopaedics became the dominant field treating fractures in much of the world. Today, the discipline encompasses conditions such as bone fractures and bone loss, as well as spinal pathology and joint disease.
Puliyur Krishnaswamy Duraiswami (1912–1974) was an Indian orthopedic surgeon, medical writer and the Director General of Health Services under the Government of India. Besides being a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and a founder Fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences, he published several articles on orthopedics and was a recipient of Robert Jones Medal and the Presidential Merit Award of the British Orthopaedic Association. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 1966, for his contributions to the Medical Science.
Sir Reginald Watson Watson-Jones, FRCS was a prominent English orthopaedic surgeon.
Sir Henry McIlltree Williamson Gray (1870–1938) was a Scottish surgeon who made very important contributions to the treatment of wounded soldiers during the First World War. He pioneered the operation of wound excision, which is a procedure to systematically remove all devitalised and contaminated tissue, leaving only healthy bleeding tissue behind. Wound excision saved limbs and lives by reducing the incidence of major wound infections, including gas gangrene. Gray was also an expert in the management of compound fractures of the femur, which carried a mortality of 80% in 1914–1915.
John Ivor Pulsford James was a British orthopaedic surgeon. He was professor of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Edinburgh from 1958 to 1979. Most commonly known as "JIP", he was secretary then president of the British Orthopaedic Association which later awarded him its honorary fellowship. James attracted orthopaedic specialists to work in Edinburgh, encouraging them to develop an interest in a specialist area of orthopaedics, and in this way he was able to establish a comprehensive regional orthopaedic service. He made contributions to hand surgery and surgical treatment of scoliosis, and was a prime mover in promoting specialist training and qualification in orthopaedic surgery in the UK.
Sir Herbert John Seddon was an English orthopaedic surgeon. He was Nuffield Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Oxford, where his work and publications on peripheral nerve injuries gained him an international reputation. His classification of nerve injuries forms the basis of that in use into the 21st century. He went on to become director of the new Institute of Orthopaedics in London and subsequently the first Professor of Orthopaedics in the University of London. In this role he directed basic science research into orthopaedic conditions and developed postgraduate training in orthopaedic surgery. He was President of the British Orthopaedic Association, and was knighted in 1964 for services to orthopaedics.
Christopher Lewis Colton is an English orthopaedic surgeon and Professor Emeritus in Orthopaedic and Accident Surgery at the University of Nottingham. He is a past president of both the British Orthopaedic Association and of the AO Foundation.
Andrew Russell Murray FRCSEd was an Australian orthopaedic surgeon who pioneered developments in hand surgery while working at Leith Hospital, Scotland. These included pollicisation, the use of stainless steel joint prostheses to replace finger joints and the use of wire to stabilise finger fractures and bone grafts. He later worked as an orthopaedic surgeon in Brisbane, Australia. On 1 December 1955 he was shot dead by Karl Kast in the "Brisbane medical massacre".
Justin Peter Cobb is a British professor of orthopaedic surgery at Imperial College London, known for introducing medical robotics into orthopaedic surgery. He is a member of the Royal Medical Household and was royal orthopaedic surgeon to the Queen. He is on the staff at King Edward VII's Hospital (KEVII) and is civilian advisor in orthopaedics to the Royal Air Force (RAF). His research has also included themes relating to designing new devices such as for ceramic hip resurfacing, 3D printing in orthopaedics, and training in surgical skills. He is a director of the MSk laboratory based in the Sir Michael Uren Hub.