title: Monsters and the case of L. Joseph: André Feil's thesis on the origin of the Klippel-Feil syndrome and a social transformation of medicine.
abstract: André Feil (1884-1955) was a French physician best recognized for his description, coauthored with Maurice Klippel, of patients with congenital fusion of cervical vertebrae, a condition currently known as Klippel-Feil syndrome. However, little is known about his background aside from the fact that he was a student of Klippel and a physician who took a keen interest in describing congenital anomalies. Despite the relative lack of information on Feil, his contributions to the fields of spinal disease and teratology extended far beyond science to play an integral role in changing the misguided perception shrouding patients with disfigurements, defects, deformities, and so-called monstrous births. In particular, Feil's 1919 medical school thesis on cervical abnormalities was a critical publication in defying long-held theory and opinion that human "monstrosities," anomalies, developmental abnormalities, and altered congenital physicality were a consequence of sinful behavior or a reversion to a primitive state. Indeed, his thesis on a spinal deformity centering on his patient, L. Joseph, was at the vanguard for a new view of a patient as nothing less than fully human, no matter his or her physicality or appearance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix;|Irkutsk Scientific Center of Surgery and Traumatology, Irkutsk, Russia.
authors.forename: Evgenii
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Belykh
authors.affiliation: University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson;
authors.forename: Kashif
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Malik
authors.affiliation: Valley Anesthesiology Consultants, Phoenix, Arizona; and.
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Simoneau
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix;
authors.forename: Kaan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yagmurlu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix;
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix;
authors.forename: Daniel D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Cavalcanti
authors.affiliation: Irkutsk Scientific Center of Surgery and Traumatology, Irkutsk, Russia.
authors.forename: Vadim A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Byvaltsev
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix;
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Theodore
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix;
authors.forename: Mark C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Preul
mesh_terms: D004212:Academic Dissertations as Topic / Q000266:history*; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae / Q000002:abnormalities; D005602:France; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007714:Klippel-Feil Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000266:history*; D064890:Social Determinants of Health / Q000266:history
keywords: André Feil; Klippel-Feil syndrome; Maurice Klippel; history of neurosurgery; monsters; physical deformity; spinal ankyloses; spinal fusion; spine deformity