The surgery of the osteoarthritic hip.

Abstract

Philip Wiles (Fig 1), born on August 18, 1899, was the son of a wealthy corn merchant and Privy Councilor, in the City of London. He attended the famous Rugby School and served 3 years in the army in France during World War I. He could have looked forward to a life of respectable comfort but chose to study medicine. After the necessary years of preparation, he joined the senior staff at the Middlesex Hospital in London where he did his life's work, practicing and teaching orthopaedic surgery. His publications document great versatility and innovation, such as a radical interinnomino-abdominal amputation for lower limb sarcoma in 1934, hemivertebra resection for correction of congenital scoliosis in the 1950s, and the world's first total hip replacement in 1938. He also published a definitive orthopaedic textbook, which went through four editions and multiple reprintings from 1949 to 1965. He also served as president of the British Orthopaedic Association. As treasurer, he provided critically important service to the British Journal of Bone and Joint surgery during its early years. During World War II, he served in India and the Middle East, and he rose to the rank of Brigadier. When he was 60 years, he resigned from Middlesex Hospital and moved to Jamaica. He involved himself in the development of the new medical school on the island, and he became chairman of the Scientific Research Council of Jamaica. He died there at the age of 67 years.