Charnley's 1960 paper uses cadaveric friction measurements on human knee and ankle joints to challenge the prevailing hydrodynamic theory of joint lubrication. It asks: what is the actual mechanism of joint lubrication, and what does that mean for how we build artificial joints? The answer drives his first clinical series of low-friction hip arthroplasty.
Charnley's 1960 paper uses cadaveric friction measurements on human knee and ankle joints to challenge the prevailing hydrodynamic theory of joint lubrication. It asks: what is the actual mechanism of joint lubrication, and what does that mean for how we build artificial joints? The answer drives his first clinical series of low-friction hip arthroplasty.