M.N. Smith-Petersen

Marius Nygaard Smith-Petersen, MD, FACS (November 14, 1886 – June 16, 1953) was an internationally revered Norwegian-American orthopaedic surgeon, master surgical innovator, and academic leader whose visionary contributions at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School laid the foundational bedrock of modern adult hip reconstruction, orthopaedic trauma, and spinal deformity correction. Widely celebrated as the father of modern hip arthroplasty, Smith-Petersen conceived and standardized the anterior iliofemoral approach to the hip joint, engineered the revolutionary triflanged nail that solved the catastrophic nonunion of intracapsular femoral neck fractures, introduced Vitallium mould arthroplasty based on the principle of guided biological metaplasia, and devised the first successful posterior spinal extension osteotomy for severe fixed flexion deformities in ankylosing spondylitis. Serving as Chief of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital from 1929 to 1946, his biomechanical brilliance, anatomical mastery, and mentorship of iconic twentieth-century surgeons permanently transformed musculoskeletal surgery from an era of destructive resections and prolonged immobilization into a modern discipline of anatomical preservation, rigid internal fixation, and functional joint restoration.

1. The Shoulders of Giants: Historical Context & Significance

In the opening decades of the twentieth century, musculoskeletal pathology of the hip and proximal femur confronted surgeons with devastating therapeutic limitations. Fractures of the femoral neck were grimly characterized by Royal Whitman as “the unsolved fracture.” Deprived of biological understanding and mechanical stability, elderly patients who suffered displaced transcervical fractures were consigned to prolonged recumbency in massive Whitman plaster abduction spicas or continuous traction. The clinical consequences of prolonged bed rest were catastrophic: hypostatic pneumonia, infected sacral decubitus ulcers, deep venous thrombosis, and pulmonary embolism exacted an institutional mortality rate approaching forty percent within the first twelve months of injury. Among those who survived, nonunion rates hovered between forty and sixty percent, while post-traumatic avascular necrosis and structural collapse of the devascularized femoral head left countless survivors permanently crippled.

For patients afflicted by end-stage osteoarthritis, congenital hip dysplasia, or destructive inflammatory arthritis, surgical options were similarly bleak and destructive. Girdlestone resection arthroplasty relieved pain at the intolerable expense of creating a shortened, unstable, flail pseudoarthrosis that condemned patients to permanent crutch dependence. Surgical arthrodesis secured pain relief and stability, but imposed complete articular rigidity, compensatory pelvic obliquity, and accelerated wear of the contralateral hip and lumbosacral spine. Early biological interposition arthroplasties employing autogenous fascia lata, chromicized pig bladder submucosa (Baer’s membrane), or tunica vaginalis produced unpredictable outcomes, routinely succumbing to biological absorption, dense fibrosis, painful recurrent ankylosis, or virulent sepsis. Simultaneously, patients suffering from severe ankylosing spondylitis (Marie-Strümpell disease) faced an inexorable progression of ossification across the anterior longitudinal ligament and facet joints. Fixed “chin-on-chest” flexion deformities blinded these individuals to the horizontal horizon, compressed the abdominal viscera and rib cage, and made mastication, swallowing, and respiration agonizing daily struggles for which no surgical relief existed.

“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Sir Isaac Newton (1675) / Bernard of Chartres

Marius Nygaard Smith-Petersen stood as the creative titan who shattered these historic impasses. Endowed with an extraordinary union of anatomical precision, mechanical intuition, and biological insight, he revolutionized musculoskeletal surgery from the ground up. Rejecting destructive joint ablations, Smith-Petersen championed the preservation and functional restoration of articulating skeletal structures. In 1917, he developed the anterior iliofemoral approach to the hip joint, establishing a safe, bloodless, internervous surgical highway that opened the hip joint to direct visual reconstruction without denervating the abductor musculature or disrupting the posterior circumflex arterial network. In 1925, he conceived the triflanged stainless steel nail, an engineering triumph that solved the unsolved fracture by providing rigid, rotationally stable internal fixation without displacing bone volume or strangling vascularity.

Smith-Petersen’s conceptualization of mould arthroplasty fundamentally inaugurated the modern era of joint replacement. Recognizing that nature’s reparative capacity could be guided by mechanical forces, he utilized a smooth, inert metallic interposition cup to stimulate undifferentiated mesenchymal cells into forming durable, hyaline-like fibrocartilage—a conceptual leap that bridged biological tissue regeneration and biomaterials science decades before the dawn of modern total joint arthroplasty. Furthermore, in 1945, his daring execution of posterior lumbar extension osteotomy provided the world’s first surgical remedy for fixed sagittal spinal deformities, restoring upright human posture and horizontal sight to patients previously imprisoned by ankylosing spondylitis. Modern joint arthroplasty specialists, orthopaedic trauma surgeons, and spine deformity surgeons stand squarely upon the shoulders of Marius Nygaard Smith-Petersen.

2. Early Life, Formative Education & Career Milestones

Education and Formative Surgical Training

Marius Nygaard Smith-Petersen was born on November 14, 1886, in Grimstad, a historic maritime community on the rugged southern coast of Norway. Reared in a cultured Scandinavian household that valued academic discipline, self-reliance, and physical hardiness, he developed a profound love for the sea and an innate mechanical dexterity. In 1903, at the age of seventeen, Smith-Petersen emigrated from Norway to the United States to live with an uncle, Dr. Carl Ferdinand Smith-Petersen, an established physician in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This familial exposure to clinical medicine crystallized young Marius’s determination to dedicate his life to surgery.

Smith-Petersen completed his secondary education in Milwaukee before matriculating at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. At Wisconsin, he excelled in the natural sciences, physical chemistry, and biology, earning his Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in 1910. He subsequently gained admission to Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. At Harvard, Smith-Petersen distinguished himself through his mastery of regional anatomy, pathology, and operative dexterity, graduating with his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree in the Class of 1914.

Following graduation, Smith-Petersen secured a highly coveted appointment as a surgical house officer at the newly established Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (1914–1915), serving under the direct mentorship of Dr. Harvey Cushing, the pioneer of modern neurosurgery. Cushing’s operating room was a temple of uncompromising surgical perfection. Cushing demanded absolute tissue gentleness, meticulous physiological haemostasis, deliberate sharp dissection along anatomical planes, and painstaking documentation. This rigorous apprenticeship profoundly molded Smith-Petersen’s surgical character; throughout his life, he abhorred blunt force, rough traction, and blind tissue tearing, insisting that orthopaedic surgery demanded the same anatomical delicacy and haemostatic control as neurosurgery.

In 1915, Smith-Petersen entered resident orthopaedic training at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where he came under the influence of the founding patriarchs of American orthopaedics: Dr. Joel E. Goldthwait (the first Chief of Orthopaedic Surgery at MGH), Dr. Robert B. Osgood, and Dr. Elliott G. Brackett. His residency training was interrupted by the geopolitical crisis of the First World War. In 1917, Smith-Petersen volunteered for military service with the First Harvard Unit at the American Ambulance Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris, France. Operating near the Western Front, he treated devastating high-velocity shrapnel wounds, compound blast fractures, and virulent combat-wound sepsis. This intensive trauma experience deepened his practical command of wound debridement, skeletal traction, and bone healing under adverse biological conditions, solidifying the clinical insights that would define his postwar innovations.

Academic Appointments and Clinical Leadership

Returning to Boston following the 1918 Armistice, Smith-Petersen established his private surgical practice and rejoined the clinical staff of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the academic faculty of Harvard Medical School. In 1929, upon the retirement of Dr. Robert B. Osgood, Smith-Petersen was selected as Chief of the Orthopaedic Service at MGH. Over the next seventeen years (1929–1946), he led the MGH Orthopaedic Service with singular clinical vision and intellectual distinction, elevating the institution into the preeminent international citadel for adult reconstructive surgery, fracture research, and surgical training.

As Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School, Smith-Petersen was a charismatic, spellbinding teacher and an exacting mentor. He possessed an uncanny ability to reduce complex mechanical problems to first anatomical and biological principles. In his operating theater, visiting surgeons from across the globe gathered in the gallery to watch him develop the anterior hip interval with rapid, bloodless grace or drive a triflanged nail under precise manual alignment. He cultivated an extraordinary cadre of pupils who would go on to shape twentieth-century musculoskeletal surgery, including Otto E. Aufranc (who succeeded him as leader of the MGH Hip Clinic and perfected Vitallium cup arthroplasty), Carroll B. Larson (later Chairman of Orthopaedics at the University of Iowa), Edwin F. Cave (Chief of Fracture Clinic at MGH and President of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons), George W. Van Gorder, and William H. Bickel (later Chairman of Orthopaedics at the Mayo Clinic).

Smith-Petersen’s institutional stature and scientific contributions earned him preeminent national and international honors. During the height of the Second World War, he served as the 12th President of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS, 1943), directing national efforts to mobilize orthopaedic surgeons for military trauma duty and standardizing fracture care across the Armed Forces. He was a prominent leader within the American Orthopaedic Association (AOA), a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS), and an active member of the International Society of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology (SICOT). In 1948, the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) conferred upon him Honorary Fellowship, inviting him to London to deliver the prestigious Robert Jones Lecture on the evolution of mould arthroplasty. Tall, strikingly handsome, distinguished by his dignified Nordic bearing and sartorial elegance, Smith-Petersen was affectionately known to his colleagues and residents as “Pete”—a revered master who embodied the highest ideals of surgical craftsmanship, intellectual originality, and compassionate patient care.

3. Core Orthopaedic Breakthroughs, Eponymous Signs & Innovations

Marius Nygaard Smith-Petersen’s career was characterized by a relentless drive to convert speculative, destructive orthopaedic procedures into predictable, biological, and mechanically sound operations. Confronting catastrophic nonunions, intractable hip arthritis, severe joint tuberculosis, and crippling spinal kyphosis, he devised original surgical approaches, engineered novel fixation devices, and formulated transformative biological doctrines that permanently altered surgical practice.

Hallmark Anatomical, Diagnostic and Operative Contributions

• The Smith-Petersen Anterior Iliofemoral Approach to the Hip Joint (1917, 1949): First developed during the First World War and published in definitive detail in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery in 1949, this eponymous approach remains one of the greatest anatomical contributions in orthopaedic surgery. Smith-Petersen identified and exploited the true internervous and intermuscular plane between the sartorius and rectus femoris (innervated by the femoral nerve medially) and the tensor fasciae latae, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus (innervated by the superior gluteal nerve laterally). Extending along the anterior iliac crest to the anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS) and curving distally over the medial margin of the tensor fasciae latae, this approach provided bloodless subperiosteal exposure of the iliac wing, direct visual control of the anterior capsule and acetabular rim, and complete preservation of the posterior circumflex vascular supply and abductor innervation.
• The Smith-Petersen Triflanged Femoral Neck Nail (1925, 1931): Introduced in 1925 and documented comprehensively in 1931 in the Archives of Surgery with Edwin F. Cave and George W. Van Gorder, the triflanged nail solved the historic crisis of intracapsular femoral neck fractures. Fabricated initially from rustless surgical stainless steel, the nail featured three radiating flanged blades positioned at 120-degree intervals radiating from a central structural axis. This three-flanged geometry provided tremendous resistance to rotation and bending moments while occupying a fraction of the cross-sectional area of a solid peg or cylinder. By driving the nail across the fracture line into the subchondral bone of the femoral head, Smith-Petersen achieved immediate rigid internal fixation that permitted early mobilization, slashed nonunion rates from over fifty percent to under twenty percent, and rescued thousands of elderly patients from the fatal complications of prolonged recumbency. In 1932, Sven Johansson of Sweden refined the nail by introducing a cannulated central core, allowing percutaneous insertion over a guide wire under biplanar radiographic control.
• Mould (Cup) Arthroplasty of the Hip (1923, 1938): Conceiving joint reconstruction as a guided biological process rather than a mechanical substitute, Smith-Petersen introduced mould arthroplasty. The clinical inspiration occurred in 1923 when he removed a sharp pane-glass splinter from the back of a Boston carpenter who had carried it encapsulated for a year; to his astonishment, the glass was surrounded by a smooth, glistening, synovial-lined sac bathed in pristine clear fluid without inflammation. Smith-Petersen hypothesized that an inert interposition mould interposed between a reamed acetabulum and reshaped femoral head would guide pluripotential reparative mesenchymal cells to undergo metaplasia into articular fibrocartilage under the influence of cyclic joint motion. After early trials with Pyrex glass (1923, which shattered under weight-bearing) and synthetic plastics such as Viscaloid and Bakelite (1933, which incited severe foreign-body reactions), he adopted Vitallium (a cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy introduced by Charles S. Venable and Harold R. Bohlman) in 1938. Vitallium mould arthroplasty became an international sensation, serving as the premier motion-preserving hip reconstruction worldwide for more than two decades.
• Posterior Spinal Extension Osteotomy for Ankylosing Spondylitis (1945): In 1945, collaborating with Carroll B. Larson and Otto E. Aufranc, Smith-Petersen published the first successful surgical correction of severe fixed flexion deformity in ankylosing spondylitis (rheumatoid spondylitis). Performing a posterior chevron-shaped wedge resection across the fused laminae, spinous processes, and ossified facet joints of the upper lumbar spine (L2–L3 or L3–L4), followed by controlled hyperextension of the operating table, he closed the posterior osteotomy gap while rupturing the ossified anterior longitudinal ligament and opening the anterior intervertebral disk space. This landmark procedure achieved up to 35 to 45 degrees of lordotic sagittal correction at a single level, restoring horizontal gaze, diaphragmatic respiration, and pain-free standing posture.
• Sacroiliac Joint Arthrodesis via Trans-Iliac Bone Block (1921, 1926): In 1921, Smith-Petersen devised a revolutionary biological technique for fusing the sacroiliac joint, described with William A. Rogers in JAMA in 1926 for tuberculous sacroiliitis and intractable post-traumatic instability. Cutting a rectangular window through the full thickness of the iliac wing directly overlying the sacroiliac articulation, he reflected the cortical block, curetted the diseased articular cartilage and tuberculous granulation tissue, and countersunk the rotated autogenous iliac block across the joint space into the sacrum, establishing rigid intra-articular osseous bridge fusion.
• Acetabuloplasty for Hip Osteoarthritis and Impingement (1936): In 1936, Smith-Petersen published his technique of acetabuloplasty for patients suffering from painful osteoarthritis and hip stiffness secondary to acetabular deformity. Recognizing that impingement between the anterior-superior acetabular rim and the femoral neck drove joint destruction and restricted flexion and internal rotation, he excised the overhanging, hypertrophic acetabular rim and anterior capsule. This brilliant operation served as the direct conceptual ancestor to modern femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) rim trimming and joint preservation surgery.

Biomechanical and Biological Principles: The Metaplasia Principle, Triflanged Rotational Stability, and Sagittal Spinal Balance

The enduring clinical brilliance of Marius Nygaard Smith-Petersen’s innovations derived from his profound comprehension of functional biomechanics, material engineering, and cellular biology. Long before the molecular mechanisms of osteogenesis and chondrogenesis were elucidated, Smith-Petersen recognized that musculoskeletal tissues are living, highly responsive biological structures governed by mechanical stimulation, vascular perfusion, and physiological stress distribution.

Central to his reconstructive philosophy was the Metaplasia Principle. Traditional interposition arthroplasties had operated on the passive mechanical concept of inserting a soft-tissue barrier (such as fascia lata or animal membranes) to physically prevent raw bone ends from adhering. Smith-Petersen recognized that such soft tissues underwent rapid avascular necrosis, enzymatic degradation, and dense cicatrix contracture. He turned this concept inside out: the mould was not a permanent artificial joint nor a passive barrier, but an active, rigid, biologically inert template designed to guide physiological repair. Following meticulous concentric reaming of the acetabulum and spherical recontouring of the femoral head down to bleeding, vascularized cancellous bone, the loose Vitallium cup sat freely interposed, providing dual articulation (motion occurred both between the femoral head and inner cup surface, and between the outer cup and acetabular wall). Under the cyclic, intermittent hydrostatic compression of physiological gait, pluripotential mesenchymal cells emerging from the subchondral marrow spaces were shielded from destructive shearing forces. Governed by Roux’s law of functional tissue adaptation, these undifferentiated mesenchymal stem cells underwent metaplastic differentiation into dense, smooth, highly congruent fibrocartilage that closely mirrored native hyaline articular cartilage. Vitallium’s spontaneous passivating chromium oxide surface film ensured complete electrochemical inertness, eliminating the galvanic corrosion and macrophage-mediated foreign-body granulomas that had doomed earlier materials.

In orthopaedic trauma, Smith-Petersen’s engineering of the Triflanged Nail represented a masterwork of structural biomechanics. Intracapsular fractures of the femoral neck are subjected to massive shear and rotational bending forces produced by the long lever arm of the femoral neck and trunk weight during single-leg stance. Early internal fixation attempts employing smooth circular pins or large bone dowels uniformly failed because a round cylinder possesses zero intrinsic resistance to torsional torque ($T = \tau \cdot J / r$); the proximal femoral head fragment rotated freely around the nail axis, shearing fragile revascularizing capillary buds and producing inevitable pseudarthrosis. Conversely, inserting massive bone plates or multiple thick screws caused severe cortical comminution, displaced excessive cancellous bone volume, and provoked pressure osteonecrosis. Smith-Petersen solved this mechanical paradox by exploiting the area moment of inertia. By configuring three thin, knife-like flanged blades radiating at 120-degree intervals from a central axis, he maximized polar moment of inertia and bending stiffness while displacing an insignificant volume of cancellous bone. The three flanged blades bit rigidly into the subchondral bone of the femoral head, establishing absolute rotational lock and neutralizing cantilever shear stresses. Most crucially, by preserving the intraosseous trabecular framework and avoiding periosteal stripping along the femoral neck, the triflanged nail protected the delicate lateral epiphyseal and retinacular arterial networks, safeguarding femoral head viability.

In spinal surgery, Smith-Petersen applied rigorous mechanical principles to Sagittal Spinal Balance. In advanced ankylosing spondylitis, continuous ossification of the anterior longitudinal ligament and posterior facet joints freezes the axial skeleton into an unrelenting, hyperkyphotic thoracic and lumbar curvature. This fixed flexion deformity projects the center of gravity of the trunk far anterior to the femoral heads and sacral promontory, generating an overwhelming forward flexor bending moment that overburdens the extensor musculature, causes severe fatigue pain, and forces compensatory knee flexion and hip extension. Smith-Petersen recognized that correcting this deformity required creating a controlled focal posterior shortening and anterior lengthening. By excising a symmetric, V-shaped chevron wedge of ossified posterior bone encompassing the spinous processes, laminae, and fused articular facets, the fulcrum of rotation was positioned precisely at the posterior margin of the vertebral body. Hyperextension of the trunk closed the posterior osseous gap and ruptured the brittle, ossified anterior longitudinal ligament, opening the anterior disk space into a wide lordotic wedge and restoring 35 to 45 degrees of lumbar lordosis. By bringing the C7 plumb line back over the posterior-superior corner of the S1 sacral plateau, this extension osteotomy eliminated the destabilizing forward moment arm, re-established horizontal gaze, and unlocked diaphragmatic excursion without compressing neural elements within the spinal canal.

4. Master Class Pro-Tip

Execution of the Smith-Petersen anterior iliofemoral approach demands absolute fidelity to the internervous interval and meticulous neurovascular protection. Violating the intermuscular boundary or failing to secure the ascending lateral femoral circumflex vessels inevitably produces catastrophic femoral nerve palsy, disabling lateral femoral cutaneous nerve meralgia, or massive retroperitoneal hematoma.

Position the patient supine on the operating table with a small radiolucent gel roll placed beneath the ipsilateral hemipelvis to present the anterior iliac wing. Begin the skin incision along the anterior third of the outer lip of the iliac crest, advance directly to the anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS), and curve the incision gently downward in a slightly lateral direction along the medial border of the tensor fasciae latae (TFL), terminating 8 to 10 cm distal to the ASIS toward the lateral patellar border. When incising the deep fascia distally, never incise directly over the palpable groove between the sartorius and the TFL; doing so places the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve (LFCN) at imminent risk. The LFCN typically emerges beneath the inguinal ligament 1.0 to 1.5 cm medial to the ASIS, but variable branching patterns frequently send branches across the ASIS or into the superficial fascia of the interval. Always incise the deep fascia 1 cm lateral to the intermuscular septum, directly over the fleshy muscle belly of the tensor fasciae latae. Develop the subfascial plane medially, elevating the deep fascial envelope with the sartorius to safeguard the LFCN within a vascularized protective flap.

Sharply incise the periosteum directly down to bone along the outer lip of the iliac crest. Using a broad Cobb elevator, strip the tensor fasciae latae, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus subperiosteally in continuity off the outer wing of the ilium, working strictly subperiosteally back to the superior rim of the acetabulum. Pack a dry laparotomy sponge into the false pelvis against the stripped iliac wing; this subperiosteal plane is completely bloodless and prevents damage to the superior gluteal nerve, which travels safely within the deep substance of the reflected gluteal muscle belly. Distally, retract the tensor fasciae latae laterally and the sartorius and rectus femoris medially. Deep within the fatty interval between the TFL and the rectus femoris, identify the ascending transverse branch of the lateral femoral circumflex artery (LFCA) accompanied by its venae comitantes crossing horizontally toward the vastus lateralis. Meticulously isolate, double-ligate, and divide these vessels before inserting deep retractors. Retractor-induced avulsion of the ascending LFCA causes immediate retraction of the arterial stump into the deep posterolateral muscular bed, producing brisk, inaccessible arterial hemorrhage and subsequent deep wound hematoma.

Following vessel division, identify the two distinct origins of the rectus femoris: the straight head originating from the anterior inferior iliac spine (AIIS) and the reflected head curving postero-superiorly along the upper acetabular rim. Place stay sutures into both heads, sharply detach them from the bone, and reflect the muscle belly distally to reveal the underlying anterior hip joint capsule. Place a blunt curved Hohmann retractor over the superior acetabular rim and a second blunt retractor under the inferior neck capsule, maintaining bone contact at all times to prevent compressive neuropraxia of the femoral nerve lying medial to the iliopsoas. Perform an anatomical T-shaped or inverted L-shaped capsulotomy along the long axis of the femoral neck and parallel to the acetabular rim. This provides expansive visual exposure of the entire femoral head, neck, and acetabulum while leaving the medial femoral circumflex artery and posterior retinacular vessels completely undisturbed.

Master Class Surgical Pearl: Anterior Hip Exposure and Safe Internervous Development

5. Primary Landmark Publications & Bibliography

The foundational contributions of Marius Nygaard Smith-Petersen are preserved in these original landmark monographs and peer-reviewed surgical literature:

• Smith-Petersen MN, Cave EF, Van Gorder GW. Intracapsular Fractures of the Neck of the Femur: Treatment by Internal Fixation. Arch Surg. 1931;23(5):715-759. doi:10.1001/archsurg.1931.01160110002001. [DOI]
• Smith-Petersen MN. Approach to and Exposure of the Hip Joint for Mold Arthroplasty. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 1949;31-A(1):40-46. doi:10.2106/00004623-194931010-00003. [DOI] [PubMed]
• Smith-Petersen MN, Larson CB, Aufranc OE. Osteotomy of the Spine for Correction of Flexion Deformity in Rheumatoid Arthritis. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 1969;66:6-9. doi:10.1097/00003086-196909000-00003. [DOI] [PubMed]
• Smith-Petersen MN. Evolution of Mould Arthroplasty of the Hip Joint. 1948. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2006;453:15-18. doi:10.1097/01.blo.0000246557.19973.43. [DOI] [PubMed]
• Smith-Petersen MN, Rogers WA. Arthrodesis for Tuberculosis of the Sacro-Iliac Joint. JAMA. 1926;86(1):26-30. doi:10.1001/jama.1926.02670270030007. [DOI]
• Hernigou P. Smith-Petersen and early development of hip arthroplasty. Int Orthop. 2014;38(1):193-198. doi:10.1007/s00264-013-2080-5. [DOI] [PubMed]
• Brand RA. Biographical Sketch: Marius Nygaard Smith-Petersen, 1886-1953. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2009;467(1):3-6. doi:10.1007/s11999-008-0671-z. [DOI] [PubMed]
• Wilson PD. M. N. SMITH-PETERSEN 1886-1953. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 1953;35-A(4):1063-1066. doi:10.2106/00004623-195335040-00030. [DOI] [PubMed]
• Mostofi SB. M.N. Smith-Petersen 1886–1953. In: Mostofi SB, ed. Who’s Who in Orthopedics. London: Springer-Verlag; 2005:310-312. doi:10.1007/1-84628-070-2_238. [DOI]

6. Biographical Provenance & Acknowledgments

This historical biography was synthesized for the OrthopaedicsOne Knowledge Network as part of A Who’s Who of Orthopaedics, adapted and expanded from the foundational biographical directory Who’s Who in Orthopedics (Springer-Verlag London) edited by Seyed B. Mostofi, BSc, MBBS, FRCS (Ed).