The hip is one of the main articulations of the human body .
Constituted essentially by the femoral head and the acetabulum (the latter being a concave-shaped bone within which the femoral head is inserted), the hip connects the trunk with the lower limbs and allows the human being to stand standing, walking, running etc.
Due to severe osteoarthritis or severe rheumatoid arthritis or following a severe fracture of a hip bone, this joint could be damaged to such an extent that hip replacement is necessary .
The hip replacement procedure is the surgical operation aimed at replacing the bone elements of the hip with elements of similar shape, made of artificial material (metal, ceramic or polyethylene).
The first and rudimentary hip prosthesis was implanted in a human being between 1890 and 1891 . A German surgeon, a certain Themistocles Glück, was the one who created the prosthesis.
Glück is to be considered a pioneer not only of hip prostheses, but of all prostheses that concern the main joints of the body. In the same years, in fact, he conceived and implanted the first knee prosthesis.
The material used by Glück for his prostheses was ivory.
The first metal hip prostheses, or rather metal alloys, were implanted only starting in 1940, at the hands of a US surgeon named Austin Moore . The operations were held at the Columbia Hospital of South Carolina (USA) and consisted in replacing the damaged part of the femur with an element in vitallium (alloy based on chromium, cobalt, nickel, etc.).
Bolts were used to attach the prosthesis to the femur.
Today, although with some differences, the prosthetic model designed by Moore is still in use: it is no coincidence that Austin Moore hip prostheses exist.
For the first modern hip prostheses - ie those consisting of stem, femoral head and acetabulum - the 70s had to wait. They were designed by English professor John Charnley at the Manchester Royal Infirmary .
Since then, a plastic material was also used - polyethylene - to coat the interior of the acetabulum and a special glue - commonly called "cement" - to block the various components of the prosthesis to the remaining bony parts.
