TY - JOUR
T1 - Monsters and the case of L. Joseph
T2 - André Feil's thesis on the origin of the Klippel-Feil syndrome and a social transformation of medicine
AU - Belykh, Evgenii
AU - Malik, Kashif
AU - Simoneau, Isabelle
AU - Yagmurlu, Kaan
AU - Lei, Ting
AU - Cavalcanti, Daniel D.
AU - Byvaltsev, Vadim A.
AU - Theodore, Nicholas
AU - Preul, Mark C.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - André Feil (1884-1955) was a French physician best recognized for his description, coauthored with Maurice Klippel, of patients with congenital fusion of cervical vertebrae, a condition currently known as Klippel-Feil syndrome. However, little is known about his background aside from the fact that he was a student of Klippel and a physician who took a keen interest in describing congenital anomalies. Despite the relative lack of information on Feil, his contributions to the fields of spinal disease and teratology extended far beyond science to play an integral role in changing the misguided perception shrouding patients with disfigurements, defects, deformities, and so-called monstrous births. In particular, Feil's 1919 medical school thesis on cervical abnormalities was a critical publication in defying long-held theory and opinion that human "monstrosities," anomalies, developmental abnormalities, and altered congenital physicality were a consequence of sinful behavior or a reversion to a primitive state. Indeed, his thesis on a spinal deformity centering on his patient, L. Joseph, was at the vanguard for a new view of a patient as nothing less than fully human, no matter his or her physicality or appearance.
AB - André Feil (1884-1955) was a French physician best recognized for his description, coauthored with Maurice Klippel, of patients with congenital fusion of cervical vertebrae, a condition currently known as Klippel-Feil syndrome. However, little is known about his background aside from the fact that he was a student of Klippel and a physician who took a keen interest in describing congenital anomalies. Despite the relative lack of information on Feil, his contributions to the fields of spinal disease and teratology extended far beyond science to play an integral role in changing the misguided perception shrouding patients with disfigurements, defects, deformities, and so-called monstrous births. In particular, Feil's 1919 medical school thesis on cervical abnormalities was a critical publication in defying long-held theory and opinion that human "monstrosities," anomalies, developmental abnormalities, and altered congenital physicality were a consequence of sinful behavior or a reversion to a primitive state. Indeed, his thesis on a spinal deformity centering on his patient, L. Joseph, was at the vanguard for a new view of a patient as nothing less than fully human, no matter his or her physicality or appearance.
KW - André Feil
KW - History of neurosurgery
KW - Klippel-Feil syndrome
KW - Maurice Klippel
KW - Monsters
KW - Physical deformity
KW - Spinal ankyloses
KW - Spinal fusion
KW - Spine deformity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84984876937&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84984876937&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3171/2016.3.FOCUS15488
DO - 10.3171/2016.3.FOCUS15488
M3 - Article
C2 - 27364256
AN - SCOPUS:84984876937
SN - 1092-0684
VL - 41
JO - Neurosurgical focus
JF - Neurosurgical focus
IS - 1
M1 - E3
ER -