San Baw

San Baw (, ; 29 June 19227 December 1984) was a Burmese orthopaedic surgeon. He is best known for pioneering "the use of ivory hip prostheses to replace ununited fractures of the neck of the femur," and developing "a new technique for treating infantile pseudoarthrosis of the tibia." His parents apparently were well-to-do and lived around the country as he went to St. Agnes' Convent in Kalaw in the country's northeast for the first few years of primary school, and attended Rangoon's St. Paul's English High School from latter primary school to high school, graduating in 1942. However, the arrival of World War II in late 1941 had shut down all the few colleges in the country, and it was only in 1944 that he was able to enroll at the wartime medical school, After the war, he enrolled at the just rechristened Faculty of Medicine of Rangoon University, graduating with an MBBS in March 1950. He graduated with an MD and an MS in orthopedics in 1958. Upon his return from the US in November 1957, he was appointed chief of orthopaedic surgery at Mandalay General Hospital (MGH), a teaching hospital in Mandalay. He also taught orthopaedics at Mandalay Medical College (later renamed the Institute of Medicine, Mandalay) from 1957 to 1975, and the Institute of Medicine 1, Rangoon (his alma mater, renamed) as a lecturer in orthopaedics from 1975 to 1980. He also made a number of contributions to the orthopaedic field. He is best known for pioneering the use of "ivory hip prostheses to replace ununited fractures of the neck of the femur," and for developing "a new technique for treating infantile pseudoarthrosis of the tibia." Soon after his arrival at MGH, he and his team began investigating the physical properties of ivory using various mechanical tests. Based on the results, he designed "his novel ivory hip specifically for patients with longstanding nonunions of displaced femoral neck fractures, ankylosing spondylitis, and avascular necrosis. His designs were based on a Thomson hemiarthroplasty, but with major modifications to the stem, and later, to the head and neck junction."

His first ivory prosthesis was used for the first time in 1960. It replaced the un-united femoral neck fracture of an 83-year-old Burmese Buddhist nun named Daw Ponnya. The ivory prosthesis was hand-carved by an expert ivory craftsman named Tin Aung, who would later go on to shape San Baw's hip prostheses from the "long axes of ivory tusks harvested from Burmese elephants that died naturally". (His assistants included Dr. Khin Maung Tu, Dr. Kyaw Myint Naing and Dr. Meik.) By 1969, he had performed more than 100 ivory hip replacements. In addition to the effectiveness, a major advantage San Baw highlighted was cost. His ivory prosthesis cost "as little as $720", and was much cheaper than titanium and vitallium prostheses. He believed it could be an affordable and effective option in countries where ivory was in abundant in supply. From 1969 to the time of his retirement in 1980, additional 200 to 300 hip prostheses were implanted. After recovery, most patients could perform everyday tasks like walking, squatting, and even playing sports. Moreover, he conducted clinical research on "the use of ivory powder in place of cancellous bone to pack the resulting cavities of giant cell tumour of bone after curettage"; at least 27 cases were treated using this method. Ivory powder was also used to pack bone cavities resulting from other diseases. In 1978 alone, in at least six cases, completely amputated hands were rejoined by means of microsurgery under his supervision. The couple had a son, Myint Zan, a former professor of law, who taught at universities in Malaysia, Australia, the South Pacific and the United States from 1989 to 2016.

San Baw died in relative obscurity. His contributions were not widely known internationally. According to his son, no international publications carried the news. The Penn Medicine magazine carried a short notice of San Baw's death with a brief description of his achievements in 1988, only after Myint Zan had contacted them. ) The BSPP government had not conferred any titles to him in recognition of his achievements.

San Baw's family has tried to keep his memory alive. Right after his death, Myint Myint Khin established the Dr. San Baw Prize for Research through the Burma Medical Association to encourage medical research in the country. However, it was funded only by a relatively small seed amount (30,000 kyats), According to Myint Zan, the school will hold the lecture annually "in perpetuity".