Hip & knee replacement pioneer Dr. David Hungerford dies

Orthopedic

Retired orthopedic surgeon David S. Hungerford, MD, 80, passed away, The Baltimore Sun reports.

Dr. Hungerford was a joint specialist who performed joint replacements, revision surgeries, diagnosis and treatment of osteonecrosis and cartilage regeneration procedures. He co-developed a porous coated anatomic total knee replacement designed to allow patients' bone cells to grow into the prosthesis, resulting in a more stable joint.

He received his medical degree from the University of Rochester (N.Y.) School of Medicine & Dentistry. He served as an orthopedic surgeon with the U.S. Army Medical Corps in Germany from 1966 to 1969, and became chief of the scoliosis clinic and arthritis surgery division at Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Hungerford was also named chief of orthopedic surgery at Baltimore-based MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital, where he established a large practice. A member of CURE International, Dr. Hungerford trained orthopedic surgeons in Africa on clubfoot, bowed leg and cleft lip treatments. He helped establish hospitals in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean.

In 2000, an orthopedic surgery professorship was established in his name at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He retired from Johns Hopkins and Good Samaritan in 2011, and received the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons' Humanitarian Award in 2013. Dr. Hungerford used the royalties from his medical patents to fund the Tree of Life Foundation, which provides money to small-scale entrepreneurs in Third World nations.

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