Crutch art painting in the middle age as orthopaedic heritage (part I: the lepers, the poliomyelitis, the cripples).

Throughout time from antiquity, the major objective of crutches was to restore, as close as possible, the functional capacity formerly held by a limb deficient person. The crutch is probably the oldest tool of the orthopaedist. It is probably also the most neglected in terms of progress from antiquity until the 20th century. The aim of this paper is to give a view of the different crutches used in this period by different people and to observe the influence of this period on the progress of the design of crutches.