The genesis and evolution of acrylic bone cement

In 1957 John Charnley and I began to discuss the question of cement fixation of femoral prostheses. This was an independent development since we had no knowledge of any other work in this area. Our conclusion was to 'grout in' the prosthesis with a suitable cement. I selected a cold-curing acrylic denture repair material called Nu-Life as most appropriate. This material proved satisfactory in laboratory and clinical trials, anti in 1958 Charnley undertook hip replacement using a cemented femoral prosthesis in six: patients. This clinical success aroused great interest and some skepticism since it was not always appreciated that Charnley and I had a substantial body of scientific data that justified this new approach to arthroplasty. Not surprisingly, the clinical aspects received most emphasis in the next decade. The scientific data was mostly published in the dental literature and was forgotten by the time cementation arthroplasty was generally accepted and so was rediscovered in future years.