ABSTRACT
Cervical traction devices such as Cone’s, Blackburn’s, Crutchfield’s, and Gardner-Wells tongs were utilized as external spine manipulation devices for many years prior to halo use. The first use of skull tongs for cervical spine manipulation is credited primarily to Howard H. Hepburn, who developed skull tongs specifically for cervical spine traction at the University of Alberta. Hepburn, the first neurosurgeon at the university, developed the hypothesis that traction would promote healing in cervical spine injuries based on his experience treating wounded soldiers during World War I. Hepburn designed his skull tongs based on common ice tongs and used automobile tire tubing as an elastic to keep the tongs applied to his patient’s head. These tongs were first utilized in the mid-1920s and began to receive acknowledgement by the 1930s. In 1933W.G. Crutchfield popularized his own cervical traction tongs. Crutchfield described his application of extension tongs to the calvaria of a 23-year-old woman with a traumatic C2-C3 fracture, and from that point on their use became widespread throughout the United States.
