Smith-Peterson-type acetabular cup for hip replacement surgery, England, 1930-1940
Prosthetic acetabular cups are used to restore or strengthen the acetabulum or socket of the hip joint to relieve pain or as a partial hip replacement. The cup is made from an alloy of chromium and cobalt, known as vitallium. This is an ideal material as it is lightweight (the cup weighs 20 g), durable and inert so it will not react with tissues and fluids in the body and provoke an immune response. This cup was the standard method of hip reconstruction until total hip replacement operations were introduced in the 1960s. Dr Marius Smith-Peterson (1886-1953), a Norwegian orthopaedic surgeon who developed this prosthetic in 1938, was famous for his pioneering research into hip joint surgery.
Object number:
1981-1712
Related Themes and Topics
Glossary:
Glossary: artificial acetabular cup
prosthetic used to fit artifical femurs into the pelvis
Glossary: orthopaedics
The branch of medicine concerned with the preservation and restoration of the muscular and skeletal systems in the body.
Glossary: prostheses
Artificial body parts, or materials inserted into tissue for functional, cosmetic, or therapeutic effect. Prostheses can be functional (artificial arms and legs), or cosmetic (artificial eye).
Glossary: acetabulum
The cup-shaped cavity at the base of the hip bone into which the ball-shaped head of the femur fits.