Arthur Bankart

Arthur Sidney Blundell Bankart FRCS (1879–1951) was a British orthopaedic surgeon best known for describing the Bankart lesion and Bankart repair for shoulder dislocation.

Biography Bankart was born in Exeter, the son of surgeon James Bankart. He was educated at Rugby School, Trinity College, Cambridge, and Guy's Hospital, qualifying in medicine in 1906. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1909, and Master of Surgery in 1910.

In 1909 he became the first surgical registrar at the newly established Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. In 1911 he was also appointed surgeon to the Maida Vale Hospital for nervous diseases, the Belgrave Hospital for Children and the Queen's Hospital for Children, all in London. Consequently, at that time he was practising orthopaedic surgery, neurosurgery and paediatric surgery at four different hospitals. He performed most of the neurosurgery at the Maida Vale Hospital, particularly spinal surgery, until his departure in 1933. He was subsequently appointed orthopaedic surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital, and also performed many of the neurosurgical operations carried out there. He was one of the first surgeons in the United Kingdom to perform lateral cordotomy for pain relief. and again in 1938. Although this procedure was described by Perthes in 1906, Bankart is credited with popularizing the technique. Thus the terms Bankart lesion and Bankart Operation remain in use.