Plaster of Paris orthopedic cast
Escayola ortopédica (vendaje de yeso)
- Date
- 1851 · confidence high
- Place
- Haarlem, Netherlands
- Credited to
- Antonius Mathijsen
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Military surgeon Mathijsen impregnated linen bandages with dry plaster powder that, when moistened at the moment of application, hardened quickly and fitted the fracture precisely, without needing an assistant or a long drying time.
Louis Seutin had already devised slower-drying starch bandages in 1815; Pirogov developed his own method with liquid plaster at almost the same time.
What it led to
- Mass use in the Crimean War by Nikolai Pirogov (1850s)
- Standard outpatient treatment for fractures
- Commercial production of plaster bandages from 1931