John Charnley

John Charnley was an English orthopedic surgeon and biomedical engineer who developed the modern low-friction total hip replacement. Working through the 1950s and 1960s, he engineered a hip prosthesis combining a small-diameter metal femoral head with a low-friction ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene socket, cemented into the bone with acrylic bone cement, solving the wear and loosening problems that had defeated earlier hip implant designs, and he founded a dedicated hip-surgery center at Wrightington Hospital to refine and teach the technique. His design became the template for the total hip arthroplasty performed on millions of patients worldwide.