Puliyur Duraiswami was born on 23 April 1912 in Puliyur, India. He was educated in Madras where he qualified MB, BS in 1936 and followed with the MS in general surgery in 1942. He was honorary surgeon at the Government Royapettah Hospital, Madras, from 1942 to 1943. From 1943 to 1947 he was a specialist in surgery in the Indian forces during and immediately after the second world war. From 1948 to 1951 he was research fellow in the University of Liverpool's department of orthopaedic surgery. He obtained the MCh in orthopaedics at Liverpool, the FRCS in 1949 and in 1951 was awarded a PhD of Liverpool, this being the first time that this university had awarded the degree for original research in orthopaedics. During his time in the United Kingdom he was awarded a Hunterian Professorship at the College, the Robert Jones Medal and the British Orthopaedic Association Prize. In 1951 he became instructor in orthopaedic surgery at Johns Hopkins University and remained there for the next two years. Returning to India he held the Chair of Orthopaedic Surgery at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, from 1954 to 1960 and was director of the Central Institute of Orthopaedics and senior orthopaedic surgeon at the Safdarjang Hospital, New Delhi, from 1960 until his death. He was also adviser in orthopaedics and rehabilitation to the Government of India's Director General of Health Services. He was known internationally for his work on congenital defects and for his establishment of the Central Institute of Orthopaedics in New Delhi and it was he who conceived the idea of mobile hospitals for providing medical care in rural areas and established fourteen such centres. He died suddenly on 11 March 1974 as the result of a cerebral haemorrhage.