Total Joint Replacement the Last Frontier

Description: David S. Hungerford, MD Professor, Orthopaedic Surgery Johns Hopkins University January, 2006 Baltimore, Maryland
The history of total joint replacement has been about basically three things: Firstly, finding the right materials that can function safely and effectively as biomaterials in long-term implants. Early attempts have used such disparate materials as ivory, cellophane, fascia lata, chromacized pig bladder, skin, other plastics, glass and metals in various forms. The interface between the implant and bone, termed the fixation, has been the second issue. Press-fit, cement and bone ingrowth/ongrowth have been the principal approaches that have been tried. Finally, the bearing surface has been an issue since the single side replacement was abandoned early on in favor of 'total' replacement.