The development of trauma, reconstructive, and orthopedic surgery mirrored in Langenbeck's Archives.

[INTRODUCTION] Reports about trauma and orthopedic surgical procedures are frequently found in the issues of Archiv für Klinische Chirurgie in the second half of the nineteenth century. Trauma surgery was, on the very beginning of surgery, a case-based, individual treatment with a high risk of wound infection. Today, trauma surgery is a multidisciplinary management. Patients with polytrauma are primarily cared for by trauma surgeons but in cooperation with reconstructive and plastic surgeons and rehabilitation and social workers.

[DISCUSSION] The German law for trauma insurance (DGUV) was an important step to finance and organize the multidisciplinary care of patients suffering physical trauma. The Swiss AO working group for osteosynthesis evolved a standardization of a worldwide-accepted protocol of surgical management of broken bones. The unification of trauma and orthopedic surgery will result in further progress in the acute and long-term management of trauma patients.