A hip replacement is a surgery in which the hip joint is replaced by a prosthetic or artificial joint. This operation is usually performed in older patients to assuage arthritis pain or fix the hip after a fall. This complex procedure rose to the forefront of the medical world in the first half of the twentieth century, and the technology has improved vastly over the years.
Early Attempts
John Rhea Bartonii is an important figure in the history of hip replacement; he was the first person to perform a bone surgery on a fused hip joint in 1826. The operation was a success for the first 3 months, but several years after the surgery the patient lost all motion in the joint. Several decades later the Czech surgeon Vitezlav Chlumsky experimented with different types of material for the hip replacement prosthetic. He used a variety of materials such as celluloid, rubber, zince, decalcifed bones and wax.
Turn of the Century Germany
The earliest record of a hip was conducted in 1891 by the German Professor Themistocles Glück. Glück crafted an ivory hip ball joint with nickel plated hardware. His work is noted for its artistic beauty.
Mid 20th Century Innovations
Dr. Austin T. Moore is credited with performing the first hip replacement using a metal prosthetic made from the metal Vitalliumin in 1942. Another major advance was made in 1962 by Englishman Sir John Charnley. Charnley was able to successfully replace an arthritis patient's hip socket with a plastic concave replacement. He also replaced the femoral head joint on the same patient with a metal prosthetic. This was the world's first total hip replacement and his patients had an 85% chance of living for 20 or more years after the surgery.
The Burmese Connection
Meanwhile, a Burmese surgeon was working to further the field of hip replacement. In 1960, Dr. San Baw used ivory hip pieces to refuse hip bones that had fractured. This ground breaking surgery was first completed by Dr. Baw at the Mandalay General Hospital in Manadalay, Burma. He went on to do hundreds more of these procedures and later presented a landmark paper on his technique before a conference of the British Orthopeadic Association in 1969. Dr. Baw found that ivory worked better in the human body than metal pieces.
Contemporary Trends
There have been many advances since the groundbreaking work of the 20th century. Computer assisted orthopedic surgery (CAOS) is developing rapidly and its proponents say that this technology can help surgeons better navigate the surgical process. An alternative to traditional total hip replacement surgery is hip surface replacement (HSR). In HSR the hip is not amputated, but replaced with a metal cap. This technique allows doctors to preserve the bone is case the hip replacement needs to be adjusted in the future.
Tags: replacement surgery, after surgery, metal prosthetic, total replacement,