| The hip joint is made up of two parts. One is a cup-shaped area called the acetabulum on the hip bone (or pelvis). The other is the ball at the head of the thigh bone (or femur). People who have severe pain or are losing the ability to walk or get around independently may be candidates for hip replacement surgery. Many credit Sir John Charnley, a British orthopaedist, with performing the first modern total hip replacement in the early 1960s. His innovations included combining a metal stem and ball with a plastic shell and using a special cement to keep the devices in place. Over the years many changes have been made |