40th anniversary of the 'Furlong Hip'

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the first clinical application of the Furlong® Total Hip Replacement (THR). This was the first THR replacement to utilise a hydroxyapatite ceramic (HAC) coating to promote biological fixation.

The innovation was a key initiative of  the Furlong Research Foundation (FRF), the small private charity through which he channelled all his ground breaking research in orthopaedics.  His world famous HAC coating has proved to be one of the most reliable and long lasting for total hip replacement.

Furlong established a company, Joint Replacement Instrumentation (JRI), to manufacture the device, the ownership of which was transferred to FRF (later to become the Furlong Research Charitable Foundation and subsequently Orthopaedic Research UK) following his death in 2002 and that of his wife Eileen a year later. Revenues from JRI enabled the charity to become a substantial grant-making body. The company was sold to AK Medical in 2018 and the proceeds from this sale continue to fund the work of the charity.