Letter to the Editor

Sir: John Sheldrake's outline of Sir Benjamin Brodie's career ¹ overlooked one important surgical contribution - and probably the only one which continues to be remembered currently, at least by orthopaedic surgeons - that is ‘Brodie's abscess’ of bone.

This chronic abscess, usually involving the tibia, was so persistently painful night and day, often for years, that patients accepted amputation even in the days before anaesthesia. Following examination of an amputated specimen, Brodie noted a thickwalled cavity in the tibia and, in 1828, decompressed similar cavities by trephining, which produced instantaneous pain relief and often healing. ² Importantly, future patients avoided amputation although this crucial reason is often forgotten today. Despite antibiotics the term ‘Brodie's abscess’ is still seen and described in current textbooks on both sides of the Atlantic.^{3, 4}