Read on: danhwilliams.com

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The story of hip replacement fits neatly into the history of modern medicine. 

It’s a story of amazing human innovation built on the advances that had come before..

A story that combines:

Into one operation that just a century ago..

Was thought to be impossible. 

Crippling pain, impaired mobility and increased frailty was thought of (as it often still is) a part of ‘old age’. That was destiny one century ago..

Picture the caricature of an ‘old’ person hobbling along in pain, needing a stick, bent double as the hip stiffens up. That caricature is someone with badly worn hip.

Hip osteoarthritis often makes it impossible to extend the hip.

A fixed flexion deformity or FFD. It's also impossible to stand up straight.

The discovery of x-ray films, at the end of the 19^th century identified the culprit. Worn out hips and knees. The cause of that crippling pain. 

The x-ray films showed:

All pointed to a worn-out hip as the cause of pain.

 

Early surgery for severe hip pain simply chopped out the worn bits 

Leaving the deep tissues to scar up and toughen up: 

A so-called ‘Girdlestone’, 

..named after the eponymous Oxford professor. 

The other surgical option removed all of the soft tissue from the hip and plated or screwed the 2x bones together. 

Like a broken bone the two bits healed, and fused together to become one: 

a so-called hip fusion.

 

BUT both operations 

..causing more problems later on. 

There was a clear unknowing demand for something better..