Summary

Rare conditions present to individual orthopaedic surgeons several times a year. Unfortunately it’s usually not the same rare condition. These difficult problems stimulate each surgeon into researching the condition and gaining a good deal of expertise. For one reason or another this expertise is not kept up, not communicated, lost. The next surgeon to come up against this problem may never get a chance to gain from this expertise.

With the arrival of the Internet the barriers to publishing and distributing information have been lowered. O.R.C.I.D., the Orthopaedic Rare Conditions Internet Database, has been set up to form a repository for this type of information and to encourage participation.

To exemplify the concept 11 cases have been collected and posted on the site. They originate from the editor’s experience and from cases posted elsewhere on the Internet. Each condition is illustrated with case presentations, a bibliography and a discussion page. The aim of this presentation is to publicize the concept and solicit contributions to the database.