Judet and Judet describe an early hip arthroplasty replacing the diseased femoral head with an acrylic prosthesis. The stem is driven through the femoral neck into the lateral cortex for fixation. The paper reports outcomes in 300 cases and positions the method against Whitman's resection reconstruction.
This 1950 paper sits at the origin of prosthetic hip replacement, before Charnley's low-friction arthroplasty reframed the field.
The core insight is mechanical: the authors argue that resection arthroplasty fails because a narrow femoral neck cannot bear load stably against a wide acetabulum, producing adduction deformity and fibrous ankylosis. Replacing the head with a same-sized sphere restores congruent articulation.
The Judet prosthesis ultimately failed in long-term follow-up (acrylic wear and loosening not captured in this early series), but the concept of a stemmed femoral head replacement fixed into the neck and lateral cortex directly foreshadows the modern hemiarthroplasty stem.
For boards, know this as an early acrylic hemiarthroplasty using the Hueter anterior approach, and recognize its failure mode of stem fatigue fracture corrected by metal reinforcement. Read it as evidence evolution, not current practice.
Judet and Judet describe an early hip arthroplasty replacing the diseased femoral head with an acrylic prosthesis. The stem is driven through the femoral neck into the lateral cortex for fixation. The paper reports outcomes in 300 cases and positions the method against Whitman's resection reconstruction.
This 1950 paper sits at the origin of prosthetic hip replacement, before Charnley's low-friction arthroplasty reframed the field.
The core insight is mechanical: the authors argue that resection arthroplasty fails because a narrow femoral neck cannot bear load stably against a wide acetabulum, producing adduction deformity and fibrous ankylosis. Replacing the head with a same-sized sphere restores congruent articulation.
The Judet prosthesis ultimately failed in long-term follow-up (acrylic wear and loosening not captured in this early series), but the concept of a stemmed femoral head replacement fixed into the neck and lateral cortex directly foreshadows the modern hemiarthroplasty stem.
For boards, know this as an early acrylic hemiarthroplasty using the Hueter anterior approach, and recognize its failure mode of stem fatigue fracture corrected by metal reinforcement. Read it as evidence evolution, not current practice.