A new concept?

The first implants used to treat arthritis, or wear of the hip cartilage, were resurfacing components. During these early years, hip replacements were being used when the leg was fractured near the hip joint and the bone could not be fixed. The hip replacements had lower levels of loosening and became used for arthritis as well.

Metal on polyethylene hip replacements were introduced to try to decrease friction. At the same time, bone cement started being used to hold the implants, and the success of metal-poly THR devices made hip surgery much more common. It also made metal-on-metal joints nearly disappear from the market. Different designers tried to use a metal-on-poly bearing in hip resurfacing components, but because the polyethylene had to be very thin, these implants had severe wear. This all but eliminated the use of resurfacing until the BIRMINGHAM HIP^◊ was introduced.