International Museum of Surgical Science - Neatorama

A trip through the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago will make you glad you live in the modern world instead of the "good old days"! Wired has a gallery of exhibit photos ranging from a skull that belonged to a trepanation patient to early x-ray machines. Pictured is a vest used in 1899 to correct scoliosis. If this were posted as a "What Is It?" I would guess it to be an instrument of torture. Link -via Digg

(image credit: Jim Merithew/Wired.com)

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Scoliosis braces are torture devices, believe me. I never got calluses from mine, just big long open rug burn looking things. Awful.

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I have been to that museum, and it is a pretty cool museum. Some of the instruments are quite scary looking, but it was cool to see (and not experience!).

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My radio station (based in Chicago and Northwest Indiana) just happened to do a couple of pieces on the Museum and interviewed a curator.

Check em out - http://vocalo.org/explore/content/49894
and the remix - http://vocalo.org/explore/content/50327.

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Yes I have seen the plastic scoliosis braces. Very restricting I thought. I wonder if the wood splints could still be useful today. They look more adjustable for comfort.

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some vests/braces used by young severe scoliosis patients still look like that! They're just made of plastic and are not riveted together...still, they look very uncomfortable. My friend had to wear one for months before she could get surgery and always had nasty callouses where the brace dug into her skin :(

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