Heart Moves Hand, Hand Moves Bone: A History and Case Study of Traditional Chinese Bone Setting

The practice of bone setting has a long history in China, yet is often overlooked in contemporary clinical practice in the West due to a variety of factors. Traumatology and healing of acute bone injuries were of profound concern to disparate cultures throughout world history, with China being no exception. This area of medical practice was particularly relevant in times of warfare with medical innovations often being forged from battlefield experience. Although there exist substantial philological recordings of these historic orthopaedic practices, most were transmitted orally making it difficult to discern the reality of such past praxis. This article presents a contemporary case study of a metacarpal fracture to highlight how these classical Chinese orthopaedic texts can be employed in a modern clinical setting. A step-bystep outline of the process of treating an acute bone fracture using a purely traditional Chinese medical methodology is chronicled with the intention of creating a wider awareness of the efficacy of such techniques and fostering a deeper understanding of some of the general principles involved in the treatment of acute traumatic injuries.