History of open wound and fracture treatment.

This introduction summarizes historical aspects regarding improvements in the treatment of open fractures and complicated wounds. Before the development of standardized surgical wound treatment and antisepsis, amputations were frequently required to prevent sepsis and death. Nowadays, the use of modern sealing techniques has caused a further dramatic reduction in the infection rates and an improvement of the healing response, thus enabling orthopaedic surgeons to perform skin graft coverage, where previously plastic surgeons had to perform skin flaps.