MSk Lab

Orthopaedic surgery is based at the Charing Cross Hospital Campus. The department includes consultant orthopaedic surgeons to provide:

    a. NHS clinical orthopaedic surgery

    b. teaching for medical students

    c. research  

The focus of the clinical service is for patients with early joint disease, specifically those whose symptoms are now bad enough to consider surgery as conservative treatment has failed to restore function. The technologiese available include:

1. hip replacement and resurfacing using the most cost-effective bearings for each individual

2. knee replacement (including partial knee replacements such as patello-femoral knee and unicondylar knee replacements).

This is both in an NHS service capacity and a research resource, in particular a valuable source of ethically approved tissue bank. 

The focus of our research is to apply the latest technologies to study the health of human joints, both:

1) to help prevent osteoarthritis, and

2) to maximise the benefit of artificial (replaced) joints

This includes technologies relevant to the rapidly developing medical devices industry in the following fields: computer science, imaging science, analytical chemistry, tribology, biomechanics and surgical robotics to form the basis for advances in the following areas:

Research Areas

1. Patterns of bony anatomy

2. Precision surgery of hip and knee replacements

3. Partial joint replacement (bone conserving)

4. In vivo wear of hip and knee replacements

5. Safety of wear debris from hip and knee replacements

6. Measurement of human musculoskeletal function

7. Retrieval centre for failed metal on metal hip replacements

8. Pelvic fracture surgery: outcome and computer assisted fixation

9. Patient matched surgery