Prof. Lars Å Lidgren, a general orthopaedic surgeon, was born in the northern mountains of Sweden in 1943. After military service in the cavalry, he studied statistics before entering medical school, graduating from Lund University in 1971. In 1973, he received a PhD with his thesis, “Post-Operative Wound Infections in Orthopaedic Surgery.” In 1975, he received specialist credentials and briefly worked in Balgrist Orthopaedic Clinic, Zurich, Switzerland. In 1987, he was appointed professor of orthopaedics at Lund University. From 1990 onward, he served for 25 years as departmental head in Lund, a world-renowned orthopaedic center.
In 1973, Professor Lidgren was the first to publish a randomized study on systemic antibiotic prophylactics in joint replacement. He invented several methods for treating bone, joint, and prosthetic infections and published the first clinical study on hip arthroscopy.
Professor Lidgren has more than 400 publications, including articles in Nature and BMJ. He has published extensively on national registries and biomaterials. An independent analysis in 2014 ranked Professor Lidgren as number one in terms of most granted patents in southern Sweden.
Professor Lidgren is an honorary member of several major societies, among them the Royal College of Surgeons, British Orthopaedic Association, American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (EFORT), International Consortium of Orthopaedic Registries, Nordic Orthopaedic Federation, and Alpha Omega. He has been the director of the Swedish National Musculoskeletal Competence Centre, Swedish Arthroplasty Register, and the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Evidence-Based Care in Musculosketetal Disorders.
Professor Lidgren is a founding member of several European organisations—EFORT, European Orthopaedic Research Society, and European Bone & Joint Infection Society. In 1998, he initiated and then for 10 years led the worldwide Bone and Joint Decade 2000–2010, officially supported by the United Nations in 1999, launched by the WHO in January 2000, and endorsed by 63 governments. It is a unique ongoing cooperation between professional and patient organizations raising the awareness of emerging bone and joint conditions resulting from the “age quake” and the epidemic of road injuries.
