Roy A. Meals, MD

Roy A. Meals is an orthopedic surgeon who blogs at About Bone.

Orthopedic surgery enters the modern age on a chance observation

Conditions

November 8, 2020

For thousands of years, bonesetters and doctors could not accurately diagnosis broken bones or differentiate such injuries from joint dislocations and torn ligaments. That changed with a chance discovery almost exactly 125 years ago. Subsequently, perhaps with equal parts of chagrin and enlightenment, doctors began using the new discovery to discount their previous assumptions and accurately diagnose skeletal diseases.

In his darkened laboratory on November 8, 1895, …

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Do viruses infect bones?

Roy A. Meals, MD

Conditions

April 14, 2020

Viruses typically invade our bodies through an opening. Think gastrointestinal flu, COVID-19, AIDS. Our bones, however, are normally protected from any outside exposure, so they should be safe, right?

The short answer is yes and no. Of course, knowledge is power, and we need both right now, so here is a nuanced answer.

Patients with smallpox frequently complained of bone pain. Epidemics in Prague in 1891-1892, in Boston a decade later, in …

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An orthopedic surgeon analyzes presidents’ skeletal maladies

Roy A. Meals, MD

Conditions

January 21, 2020

I, along with some others, take Presidents Day as an opportunity to celebrate the lives and contributions of all U.S. presidents. Amid the praise, however, perhaps I alone feel compelled to describe their skeletal maladies. I have gleaned the following information from several websites and books that carefully detail the reported injuries, diseases, bad habits, and addictions experienced by U.S. chief executives throughout their lives, starting with George Washington’s …

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The history of viewing bones through telescopes

Roy A. Meals, MD

Conditions

June 25, 2019

It is probable that primitive man’s curiosity markedly increased soon after he stood up and started walking on just his feet. He could both peek into caves and drop back onto all fours to peer down badger holes. Looking into his family’s mouths and ears soon followed. Many generations later, his progeny developed metal tubes and glimpsed human interiors through all of our natural orifices. Lighting, however, was always an …

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How to take out a bone loan

Roy A. Meals, MD

Conditions

June 11, 2019

After a severe fracture or removal of a tumor, what happens if a segment of bone is missing? The bone ends will try to grow into one another just as they do after routine fractures, but the lack of immobilization and the gap may be insurmountable despite how hard the bone tries to repair itself. The void instead fills with gristle-like scar tissue, which cannot restore stability. A wobbly false …

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Is it orthopaedic surgery or orthopedic surgery?

Roy A. Meals, MD

Conditions

February 2, 2019

In 1741, a French physician named Nicolas Andre coined a new word, Orthopédie, and published a book on the topic.

Andry described how physicians and families could correct or prevent skeletal abnormalities in children. At that time, the treatment methods were entirely non-operative because the development of general anesthesia and the concept of non-emergency surgery were still a century away. So Andry stressed the importance of his message in two ways. …

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An orthopedic surgeon’s bone broth journey

Roy A. Meals, MD

Physician

January 19, 2019

Many cooks traditionally use broth derived from simmered bones of fish, fowl, or four-footed critters to flavor soups and sauces. Recently, bone-broth bars have popped up around the country and serve a non-caffeinated, nutritious alternative to tea or coffee. In some of these health-conscious establishments, the owners claim that these drinks also have filling, cleansing, and detoxing capabilities.

I decided to see if a daily cup of bone broth should be …

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This physician stuck himself with a needle. Intentionally.

Roy A. Meals, MD

Physician

September 30, 2018

I stuck myself with a hypodermic needle the other day. Intentionally. The first time in over 25 years of doctoring. More surprising, a six-year-old patient told me to do it, so I had to.

The boy, who I’ll call Tyler, came to the office with his father and had a large ganglion cyst on the back of his wrist — bigger than a jellybean. I told Tyler and his father all …

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Do your children know what you do?

Roy A. Meals, MD

Physician

September 5, 2018

The wizards have determined that an important monitor for the eventual success of your children is … drum roll please … whether or not the family eats dinner together. How prosaic. At first glance, this seems counterintuitive. What about private school, tutoring, soccer camp, circumnavigating the earth solo?

Those activities all pale against the family values that are shared, whether you know it or not, at the dinner table.

“How was your …

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How many bones in the human body? It’s not what you think.

Roy A. Meals, MD

Conditions

August 28, 2018

If somebody asks you how many bones there are in a human body, please do not blurt out, “206.” The correct answer is nuanced. To respond accurately to the query, you have to address five questions. Who? What? When? Where? Why?

Consider first that humans vary from one another in facial features, hair color, height, and shoe size. Unknown to nearly everybody except …

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The human hand: not really that good for anything

Roy A. Meals, MD

Conditions

August 6, 2018

Long ago primitive sharks had ridges running down their sides from gill to tail. Later, muscles grew into the folds, and eventually, the central portion of each ridge receded while the ends enlarged to form fins both fore and aft. All was well.

Then one day several hundred million years ago, a fish was swimming blissfully in a shallow pool. The tide went out …

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Who named our bones? And what were they thinking?

Roy A. Meals, MD

Conditions

July 21, 2018

All of our 200+ bones have names, which facilitates describing them when we cannot actually hold them or point directly at them. It might be easier to remember the names if they were familiar ones like Robert, Sally, and Kevin, but no such luck. Latin was the original language of science, so the bones received Latin names. Some of those were derived …

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A clear case of suspected child abuse turns out to be something else

Roy A. Meals, MD

Physician

March 31, 2018

The emergency room staff was immediately suspicious. His father said that Peter, just over six months old, was pulling himself up to a standing position by grasping his pant leg. Peter fell back, screaming. The extreme distress, entirely unusual for Peter, continued until some Tylenol helped him fall asleep. The next morning Peter was screaming again, and his mother took him to the emergency room.

X-rays showed a fractured leg. The …

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