A history of surgery in the instrument tray: eponymous tools used in hand surgery.

Hand surgery emerged as a specialty after World War II, and early hand surgeons borrowed tools from established fields of the time. These tools remain in common use today, and many are identified by the names of the men who created them. Because these men did not specialize in surgery of the hand, their history remains obscure to modern surgeons who do. We have investigated the history of eponymous instruments developed before 1945 and used widely today in American hand surgery. Reflection on these eponymous instruments reveals the rich and diverse history of hand surgery.