Knee Replacement - History

History

The pioneer of knee replacement surgery was Leslie Gordon Percival Shiers (FRCS); his original papers were published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery in 1954. Shiers refused to patent his invention, and demonstrated the operation throughout the world, inviting other surgeons to improve upon his original idea. Following John Charnley's success with hip replacement in the 1960s attempts were made to design knee replacements. Frank H. Gunston and Leonard Marmor were pioneers in North America. Marmor's design allowed for unicompartmental operations but did not always last well. In the 1970s the "Geometric" design, and John Insall's Condylar Knee design, found favor. Hinged knee replacements for salvage date back to GUEPAR but did not stand up to wear. The history of knee replacement is the story of continued innovation to try to limit the problems of wear, loosening and loss of range of motion.

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