Resurfacing In traditional hip replacement, the head of the femur is replaced with a metal head secured to a stem in the femoral canal. In hip resurfacing, the neck of the femur is not cut, and instead the head of the femur is capped with a hemispherical metal ball articulated with an acetabular cup. The concept of resurfacing was developed as early as the 1970s, but it was abandoned due to unsatisfactory results. The procedure started to spark new interest in the 1990s as the results improved due to improvements in the articulation surfaces and fixation techniques (Amstutz 1998), and it has become considerably more common in the 2000s. In Australia, for example, resurfacing procedures accounted for 9% of all hip replacement operations carried out as a consequence of primary osteoarthritis, and their use has increased 17-fold in the 2000s (Australian Orthopedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry).