Sir John Charnley 1963
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| Born | 29 August 1911 |
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| Died | 5 August 1982 | Age 70 |
The first successful Total hip arthroplasty (THA) was carried out by John Charnley in 1963.
Before Sir John's work, there had been partial hip replacements, known as hemiarthroplasties.
Sir John Charnley, tested materials in his own legs to ensure they worked before implanting them in a patient. Sir John and his team had created a clean-air system to protect patients during operations and clean trays to prevent cross-infection.
Key to Success
He wrote to all his patients asking 'could he have the hips back when they died?' When a patient passed away, someone would be sent to go and collect the hips and the lymph nodes to correlate the facts and to see how the joints had worked during the years they had been in the body.
