Close your books, class – it’s time for a pop quiz! How much do you really know about the AAOS and the past 75 years of orthopaedic history? Read on to find out.

1. In the years leading up to the 1933 founding of AAOS, any sizable city hospital would be familiar with the prognosis of typhoid fever, smallpox, cholera, tuberculosis, diphtheria, measles, and pertussis. In 1930, life expectancy for men and women, at birth, was, respectively:
1. 50 and 53
2. 57 and 60
3. 62 and 64
4. 65 and 69
2. Beginning with the 1916 polio outbreak until the 1955 introduction of the Salk vaccine, treatment of polio patients was “the heart and soul of orthopaedics.” At the peak of the U.S. epidemic in 1952, more than 59,000 cases were reported. How many polio cases were reported in the United States in 2006?
1. None
2. More than 100
3. Fewer than 50
4. Fewer than 10
3. Before orthopaedic surgeon Frank W. Jobe, MD, performed ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction surgery on the elbow of L.A. Dodgers pitcher Tommy John, baseball history was littered with pitchers whose careers were ended by torn elbow ligaments, including Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Smokey Joe Wood, and Dizzy Dean. In what year did Dr. Jobe perform this groundbreaking surgery?
1. 1912
2. 1969
3. 1972
4. 1974
4. In 2006, how many primary total joint replacements (knee or hip) were performed in the United States?
1. 7,000
2. 350,000
3. 750,000
4. 1.6 million
5. First published in 1939, what is the name of the orthopaedic text that some call “the bible of orthopaedic surgery”?
6. When did the AAOS present its first continuing education course for physicians?
1. 1952
2. 1955
3. 1964
4. 1972
7. In its 75-year history, the Academy canceled its Annual Meeting only once. In what year did that occur, and why?
8. J. Robert Gladden, MD, was the first African-American physician certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery and the first elected to fellowship in the Academy. In what year did these events occur?
1. 1949
2. 1953
3. 1958
4. 1960

Answers to questions 1-4 can be found in the new coffee table book, Moving Stories: Seventy-Five Years of Orthopaedic Surgery. Check it out at Moscone Center West during the 2008 Annual Meeting.

Discover the answers to questions 5-8 by visiting the interactive “Digital Timeline,” located in Moscone Center North.

Carolyn Rogers is a staff writer for AAOS Now. She can be reached at rogers@aaos.org

Answers:

#1: B) 57 and 60
#2: C) Fewer than 50
#3: D) 1974
#4: C) 750,000
#5: Campbell's Operative Orthopaedics, written by AAOS founder Willis C. Campbell, MD.
#6: C) 1964
#7: The 1945 meeting was cancelled due to World War II. As a result, all 1945 officers and others on the Executive Committee served in their offices for two consecutive years.
#8: A) 1949