The History of the Total Hip Replacement Baltimore MD

Orthopedic surgeries are considered to be among the safest and most successful medical interventions available today.  The total hip replacement Baltimore MD is no exception and is, in fact, one of the first of these kinds of surgeries to be developed.  The very first hip replacement was attempted in Germany in 1891.  Tuberculosis was a common ailment at the time.  There was no cure for it.  It caused a lot of varied secondary problems in patients who suffered from it.  A medical professor endeavored to use ivory as a replacement for the femoral head (the ball part of the ball-and-socket hip joint) in patients whose natural bone material had been destroyed by Tuberculosis.  This surgery was given the technical name "total hip arthroplasty" (THA).

Total Hip Replacement Surgery Baltimore in the 1920's

Following the presentation of this experimental total hip replacement surgery Baltimore at an early international medical conference, doctors and scientists continued to experiment with different materials for making better and better replacements for parts of the hip joint.  In 1925, an American surgeon invented a new "socket" that could be fit into the pelvis to provide a smooth surface that facilitated movement if that part of the joint had been impacted by disease.  It was called a "mold arthroplasty" and was made from glass.  The glass socket replacements were found not to be durable enough for long-term use.  Experimentation then moved on to stainless steel as a replacement material.  It is still used today.

The first metal-on-metal artificial hip joint that was able to serve as a replacement for both the femoral head and the pelvic socket parts of the hip joint was used in England in 1953.  This was a huge advance in this kind of surgery for a few reasons.  One of these replacement hip joints functioned for a remarkable 28 years.  Total hip replacements done in the 1950's did frequently require revision surgeries because the materials were not yet available to build artificial joints that would stand up to many decades of wear.  In the 1970's, advances in materials sciences allowed researchers to create joints that function more realistically and wear much longer without a revision surgery.