The Journey of orthopaedics in Madhya Pradesh can be traced back to more than 110 years. It is on the record of the old King Edward Medical School, Indore that operation on Osteomyelitis & fracture reduction were being performed. In 1938, Col. Ayer was surgeon in Military Hospital, Mhow. He treated the younger brother of the senior orthopaedic surgeon of the State, Dr. R. K. Moorthy, who had sustained fracture of Radius & ulna. He did the open reduction without any internal fixation. The fracture united without infection and that too without any antibiotics. The internal fixation was unknown. The credit for first internal fixation can be given to Late Prof. B.B. Ohri. He had a training in general surgery, but at that time orthopaedics was done by the general surgeons, only. Dr. Ohri mentioned that he was much interested in Orthopaedics. He even got admission in M.Ch. Orth under Mr. T.P. McMurray, but left it. It was his interest in Orthopaedics that he performed the latest operation prevalent at that time. He was the first Professor and Head of the department of Surgery at Medical College, Indore. In early 1950’s he used to put Kirschner wires for holding the displaced forearm fractures. The other commonly performed operations by him were for Osteomyelitis and for correction of deformities. Hip Arthroplasty (Girdle stone), S.P. Nailing. McMurray’s Osteotomy & Spinal Surgery.

Orthopaedics was part of the general surgery. There used to be one ward and few beds for orthopaedics, which were looked after by one lecturer in surgery. Dr. Chamanlal Nagarath, who was a cardiothoracic surgeon, looked after the orthopaedic ward also. Dr. R. C. Verma was appointed as lecturer in Medical College Indore in 1957. Dr. C. P. Tiwari was appointed in Medical College, Gwalior. He happened to be the first M.S. (Orthopaedics) of the country. Internationally famous orthopaedic surgeon Dr. C. S. Ranawat worked as R.S.O. in Orthopaedics under R. C. Verma at Indore. Dr. R. C. Verma resigned in 1959. Dr. B. K. Jain took over and he was followed by Dr. P.S. Mathur from 1962-63 as reader. And then Dr. R. K Moorthy took over. He was trained in general surgery. Dr. O.P. Sharma was appointed lecturer in Orthopaedic when Dr. C. P. Tiwari went on promotion to Raipur. He was followed by Dr. S.K. Ohri and Dr. Balchandani who were appointed as lecturers at Jabalpur & Gwalior respectively. In late 1964, Dr. Siddiqui and Dr. Chandak were appointed as lecturers in different Medical Colleges.

Dr. R. K. Moorthy, who became reader in 1963, was trying hard to separate the department of Orthopaedics from Surgery Department. It is to his credit that the Departments of Orthopaedics were established as independent departments in 1968, all over the state. Dr R. K. Moorthy had convinced Late Dr. Subramaniam then Director of Health Services in M.P. He declared separation of the Department in all Medical Colleges at the time of National Conference in Aug. 1968 at Indore.

First M.S. Orthopaedics in MP was started by Dr. R. K. Moorthy at Indore in 1968 & in the first batch were Dr. V.S Inamdar, Dr. J.Dubey, Dr. V.K.Taore and Dr. J.K.Bakliwal.They all cleared in 1969.

It is interesting to note that the first external examiners were Late Prof. B.N. Sinha (Lucknow) and Late Prof. B. Mukhopadhyay (Patna). They were President & Secretary of Indian Orthopaedic Association. In Oct 1979, Dr. D.K.Taneja was appointed lecturer at Medical College, Indore and four months later, Dr. Taore who is the product of Medical College, Indore become the Second orthopaedic surgeon trained in Madhya Pradesh to be appointed as lecturer in Medical College, Indore. First was late Dr. V. S. Inamdar. Along with him Dr. C.J. Gaikwad was also appointed as lecturer in Medical College, Gwalior, Dr. O.P. Sharma moved to Bhopal in early 1970’s. Dr. R. N. Sharma, Dr. P. K. Rai, Dr. Saroj Jain & Dr. J. P. N. Dubey were the earlier students from Bhopal.

M.S. Orthopaedics was started in other Medical Colleges also. Gwalior 1979, Jabalpur & Rewa 1980 & Raipur 1983. The students graduating from MP like any other students showed urge to pursue further training. Students started going to UK Dr. K. C. Sethi was first to obtain M.Ch. Ortho from L’Pool in 1983. he was followed by Dr. Haito, of Indore. Dr Mehurkar, Raipur, Dr. Middha, Dr. Ajay & Dr. Raju Vaishya from Gwalior. Dr. Raj Kumar Shrivastava of Indore became the first orthopaedic surgeon of MP to become consultant in UK. Dr. V. P. Middha became the First DNB of M.P. in 1986.

Dr. Moorthy organised the National Orthopaedics meet at Indore in Aug. 1968. Dr. K. T. Dholakia was the President at that time. Dr. Moorthy read his paper on the primary osteotomy in the treatment of fracture Neck Femur. I think, this was the first paper read from MP in National Conference.

In 1972, First post of Professor of Orthopaedics was created & Prof O P Sharma became the First Professor in MP. Dr. Moorthy retired in 1971 after having established orthopedic specialty in MP. He was responsible for giving the identity to the specialty that it deserved. From 1972 to 1978 Orthopaedics was progressing at a slow pace. Five more posts of Professors were created and Dr. Balchandani, Dr. Das, Dr. Siddiqui & Dr. Rallan were promoted to the chair of Professors of Orthopaedic. This opened the avenues for the other younger orthopaedic surgeons

Another important date is 9^th Sep 1972. A young Orthopaedic Surgeon who had come from AIIMS and joined as lecturer at Indore invited other six orthopaedic surgeons of Indore for a cup of tea at his residence. Theses seven orthopaedic surgeons were Dr. R. K. Moorthy, Dr. R. C. Verma, Dr. C. P. Tiwari, Dr. V. S. Inamdar, Dr. R. C. Rallan, Dr. G. C. Jain and Dr. D. K. Taneja. They decided to form the Indore Orthopaedic Club. This happened to be the second or third city level orthopaedic club of the country prior to this Bombay Orthopaedic Society and probably Ahmedabad were existing

1981 is another milestone in the journey of orthopaedics in MP. Orthopaedic Surgeons of MP were trying to form MP Chapter. One of the earlier efforts were made in 1976 during the time of National Conference at Calcutta in Great Eastern Hotel. Few orthopaedic surgeons like Dr. Chandak, Dr, Siddiqui, Dr. Inamdar, Dr. Taneja. Dr. Ohri, Dr. OP Sharma, Dr, Taore met and decided to form the MP Orthopaedic Association, but no progress could be made in 1980, again the efforts were revived and the key role was played by Dr. OP Sharma, Dr Ohri, Dr. Taneja, Dr. V. K. Taore, Dr Nirbhay Shrivatava & Dr. S. K. Mukharjee. In February 1981 Ad-hoc body of MP Chapter was formed. Dr. O.P. Sharma became the first President and Dr. D. K. Taneja became the first Secretary. Since then MP Orthopaedic Association has been progressing steadily. During the tenure of Dr. J. K Bakliwal as President & Dr. S. K. Mukharjee as Secretary MP bagged the best chapter award of Indian Orthopaedic Association in the year 1987 for the first time Dr. Vinod Naneria became secretary in year 1988. He put in very hard work and streamlined the constitution and other activities of the association. Dr. Pradip Shrivastava took over as Secretary in year 1991. During his tenure, MP Chapter won the best chapter award twice in the years 92 & 93. Dr. JPN Dubey and Dr. K Sudarshan were President in those years. His efforts were to great extent responsible for giving new heights to Orthopaedics in MP. He was followed Dr. Arun Rajoria. He kept the flag flying high By this time MP was being recognised as Chapter full of energetic orthopaedic surgeons and activities. In 1986 Dr. O.P. Sharma become the first orthopaedic surgeon in MP become the Vice President of Indian Orthopaedic Association. Dr. R. C. Verma & Dr. P. K. Rai ( 1994) also became Vice President of Indian Orthopaedic Association. Dr. P. K. Rai was the first editor of MP Orthopaedics Journal. This was circulated all over the country. It helped to gain further recognition at National Level Indore played a very important role in bringing the orthopaedic specialty to the newer heights. In 1987, Orthopaedic Foundation Course was held Indore. In this meeting many international & National fame orthopaedic surgeons came to MP. Dr. HKT Raja of Jabalpur bagged the prestigious AA Mehta Gold medal of IOA. His individual efforts gave further recognition to Orthopaedic at National Level with effort of Dr. Taneja first Trauma Centre with the grant of Rs. 1 crore from Government of India was opened at Indore in 1994. First school of Physiotherapy was opened at Medical College. Indore in 1997. In this way Orthopaedics in MP was well established and recognised as the most important and valuable chapter in Indian Orthopaedic Association.

In 1998-Orthopaedics in MP took off. After a very successful CME conducted by MP Chapter for three years in 1994, 1995 and 1996, MP got recognised nationally, The thumping success of Kolkatta CME helped us to bag national conference Jabalpur. The conference was a grand success under the leadership of Dr. HKT Raza same year Dr. D. K. Taneja got elected as president of Indian Orthopaedic Association. He was the first Orthopaedic Surgeon from MP who ever fought the election and won with record margin. We were now flying high. Dr. HKT Raza – took the flag flying still higher. He becomes the second Orthopaedic surgeon from M P to get elected as National President in year 2005. He became the Chairman of Infection section of Asia Pacific Orthopaedic Association and organised memorable conference at Khajuraho in Aug 2006.

Year 2000 was land mark for MP Three important bodies of Orthopaedics in our country i.e. Indian Orthopaedics Association, Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation India, and Orthopaedic Association of SAARC Countries were being controlled from Indore as Dr. Taneja was either president or Secretary of these bodies

On surgical front all type of surgeries like Joint Replacement (first in 1983 by Dr. S. N. Goel), Ilizarov (first in 1989 at T. Choithram Hospital) Scoliosis (first in 1980) M.Y.H.) Arthroscopy (first in 1982 M.Y. Hospital) similarly advance spinal surgery, interlocking, locking plate etc are all being done in MP now.

Today we are second to none. We are recognised at International level, be in American academy, or Asia Pacific or SAARC. At national level MP has given two presidents and one secretary. Our chapter has bagged best chapter award many times. Our city branches are having International fellowship and state Traveling fellowship (Indore branch). We need not be complacent and should keep pace with rest of the world and try to move ahead of other chapters. Our motto should be in pursuit of excellence. We must not forget that the heights we are touching is by standing on the shoulders of our seniors who gave birth to our specialty in MP nursed it and brought it to this level-that we all are reaping its fruits I, on behalf of all of you, salute our seniors for their valuable contribution in this Silver Jubilee of our chapter.

This is in brief the journey of Orthopaedics in Madhya Pradesh. The important landmarks can be summarised as: