There have been many dramatic changes in the evolution of the orthopaedic hip device sector since the earliest total hip replacement surgery in the 1930s.

The first total hip replacement surgery was performed by Phillip Wiles who designed and placed the very first hip replacements at Middlesex Hospital, London, UK. Prior to Phillip Wiles successful design, only hemi-arthroplasty hip surgeries were performed with poor clinical results.

Since then, several passionate and well-known surgeons have sought to improve the clinical history of hip replacement surgeries with unique design changes, revolutionary surgical procedures and innovative and standard materials.

George Kenneth McKee developed the first widely accepted and successful metal-on-metal THR in the 1960s which was heavily criticized by Professor Sir John Charnley. By the late 1970s, usage of metal-on-metal hip devices was replaced by metal-on-polyethylene.

It was discovered in the late 1980s that the metal-on-polyethylene replacements were failing at a high rate due to osteolysis from polyethylene debris being created by the friction of the metal head articulating inside of the polyethylene cup. The Charnley Method was developed to ensure that the metal-on-polyethylene devices were used in the 65+ age population because their activity levels weren’t as high and likely to cause osteolysis. For the elderly, inactive segment, the metal-on-polyethylene hip designs yield favorable clinical results with very little osteolysis disease.

But what about the younger, more active patients under 65? For years, they were told to endure the pain and limitations of hip disease, until they reached the “magic age” of 65. Until the late 1990s.

Through decades of trial and error the age of the most successful large-head metal-on-metal BIRMINGHAM HIP◊ Resurfacing design was born.