As the name implies, the discipline was initially developed with attention to children, but the correction of spinal and bone deformities in all stages of life eventually became the cornerstone of orthopedic practice.

[citation needed] As with many words derived with the "æ" ligature, simplification to either "ae" or just "e" is common, especially in North America.

In the US, the majority of college, university, and residency programmes, and even the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, still use the spelling with the digraph ae, though hospitals usually use the shortened form.

[3] On the battlefields of the Middle Ages, the injured were treated with bandages soaked in horses' blood, which dried to form a stiff, if unsanitary, splint.

[5] Jean-André Venel established the first orthopedic institute in 1780, which was the first hospital dedicated to the treatment of children's skeletal deformities.

[citation needed] Advances made in surgical technique during the 18th century, such as John Hunter's research on tendon healing and Percival Pott's work on spinal deformity steadily increased the range of new methods available for effective treatment.

Robert Chessher, a pioneering British orthopedist, invented the double-inclined plane, used to treat lower-body bone fractures, in 1790.

[citation needed] Examples of people who aided the development of modern orthopedic surgery were Hugh Owen Thomas, a surgeon from Wales, and his nephew, Robert Jones.

[7] Thomas became interested in orthopedics and bone-setting at a young age, and after establishing his own practice, went on to expand the field into the general treatment of fracture and other musculoskeletal problems.

His nephew, Sir Robert Jones, had already made great advances in orthopedics in his position as surgeon-superintendent for the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1888.

The modern total hip replacement was pioneered by Sir John Charnley, expert in tribology at Wrightington Hospital, in England in the 1960s.

[11] External fixation of fractures was refined by American surgeons during the Vietnam War, but a major contribution was made by Gavril Abramovich Ilizarov in the USSR.

[17] According to the latest Occupational Outlook Handbook (2011–2012) published by the United States Department of Labor, 3–4% of all practicing physicians are orthopedic surgeons.

Additionally, foot and ankle surgery is also practiced by doctors of podiatric medicine (DPM) in the United States.

According to applications for board certification from 1999 to 2003, the top 25 most common procedures (in order) performed by orthopedic surgeons are:[20] A typical schedule for a practicing orthopedic surgeon involves 50–55 hours of work per week divided among clinic, surgery, various administrative duties, and possibly teaching and/or research if in an academic setting.

[21][22] This is a very low estimation however, as research derived from a 2013 survey of orthopedic surgeons who self identified as "highly successful" due to their prominent positions in the field indicated average work weeks of 70 hours or more.

Arthroscopy was pioneered in the early 1950s by Masaki Watanabe of Japan to perform minimally invasive cartilage surgery and reconstructions of torn ligaments.

Knee arthroscopy is one of the most common operations performed by orthopedic surgeons today, and is often combined with meniscectomy or chondroplasty.

[24] Arthroplasty is an orthopedic surgery where the articular surface of a musculoskeletal joint is replaced, remodeled, or realigned by osteotomy or some other procedure.

[25] It is an elective procedure that is done to relieve pain and restore function to the joint after damage by arthritis (rheumasurgery) or some other type of trauma.