Gareth+-+Memo+-+29

"Joint Re-surfacing surgery"

Surgical procedures, with the exception of those developed in the course of wars, arise from research and teaching hospitals in the US and Europe. In reading about the history of organ transplantation technique recently, this general pattern was reinforced by reading the story of Russian medical researchers, who contributed with little credit. Subject recently to revision the hagiography of American surgeons valiantly learning to master interchangeable parts had left these researchers out. The real infrequency of medical research in the developing world getting recognition leads me to focus here on the example of joint resurfacing surgery, an alternative to joint replacement surgery, that has been popularized in India. While I am still looking into the details, it is clear that innovation into the practice, and form of this particular surgical technique were, if not invented, then expanded upon in India. At the same time the practice had been dismissed as unsatisfactory in the US, and was not FDA approved (that may not be right, but whoever approves such things). It was already practiced, but was a ready fit for the rising Indian industry in medical tourism, nearly equivalent range of motion following surgery, but a dramatically reduced recovery period and decreased need for physical therapy. The popularity there has pushed these procedures into clinical testing, and back into the ring for approval here in the states.