A hip replacement operation is one of the most successful operations in Orthopaedic Surgery. Hundreds of thousands of these operations are now carried out every year worldwide with excellent results. It's modern form was invented here in the U.K. in the 1960s by Sir John Charnley.
Hip replacement surgery becomes necessary when the hip joint has been badly damaged from any cause and the resulting pain cannot be satisfactorily controlled by nonsurgical means. The usual problems that can end up in the need for a hip replacement include any one of the many types of arthritis, malformation of the hip since birth or abnormal development and damage from injury.