Contact the Harris Orthopaedics Laboratory.

55 Fruit Street
Jackson Building 1206
Boston, MA 02114

Harris Orthopaedics Laboratory617-726-3869

The pioneering efforts of Harris Orthopaedics Laboratory (HOL) began in 1969. Since that time, the HOL has positively impacted the quality of life for millions of patients through its commitment to continuous innovation and evidence-based medicine.

  • We developed and continue to house of one of the oldest arthroplasty registries in the USA for documenting clinical improvements and identifying failure mechanisms.
  • Our efforts contributed to lowering the rates of deep vein thrombosis and infection, improving surgical techniques, and shortening hospital stays for patients.
  • We made important contributions to improved understanding of the inherent linkage between bone resorption and formation.
  • We made major contributions to improving the success of human limb reimplantation.
  • We made key contributions to the new understanding of the etiology of hip osteoarthritis.
  • We developed a unique method for directly measuring the pressure in human articular cartilage in vivo during activities of daily living.
  • We made major innovations in developing reconstructive hip surgery techniques for arthritis caused by developmental dysplasia and total developmental dislocation.
  • We made important contributions to the rigorous quantification for both the hip-centered outcomes of adult hip surgery and individual hip surgery techniques.
  • We made major contributions to advances in total hip implant designs and implantation techniques for both cemented and cementless total hip replacements.
  • We improved bone cement and cementing techniques and contributed also to innovations in cementless implant fixation.
  • We helped identify one of the major failure modes in joint arthroplasty - bone loss caused by adverse tissue response to particulate debris (periprosthetic osteolysis).
  • We pioneered and continue to enhance development of highly-crosslinked polyethylenes. Our innovations have provided major advances in the elimination of periprosthetic osteolysis worldwide, thereby contributing to significant improvements in the outcomes of total hip and total knee patients.
  • We established the ability of highly-crosslinked polyethylene to resist wear with sufficient power to safely permit the use of femoral heads greater than 32 mm in diameter, thus effectively reducing the dislocation rate of metal-on-polyethylene THR
  • We pioneered the use of antioxidants in highly-crosslinked polyethylene implants, further improving their long-term performance in patients.

The Harris Orthopaedics Laboratory has generated more than 600 combined publications since its inception in 1969. Many publications have garnered multiple distinctions, including:

To date, the Harris Orthopaedics Laboratory has been granted:

  • 3 Kappa Delta National Orthopaedic Research Awards
  • 10 Hip Society Awards
  • 3 HAP Paul Awards