As hemophilic arthropathy infrequently affects the hip joint, we perfo
rmed a multicenter retrospective study to determine the results of hip
arthroplasty in hemophilic patients, Thirty-four hip arthroplasties w
ere performed in twenty-seven male patients at four major hemophilia c
enters from October 1972 through September 1990. Twenty-six patients h
ad classic hemophilia and one bad factor-IX deficiency, The mean age o
f the patients at the time of the operation was thirty-eight years (ra
nge, fifteen to seventy-three years). The mean duration of follow-up w
as eight years, with a minimum of two years for all patients who were
still alive at the time of this review Four patients were seropositive
for the human immunodeficiency virus at the time of the operation, an
d sixteen patients were seropositive at the time of the most recent fo
llow-up examination, Nine patients (33 per cent) died before the time
of this review; seven had been seropositive for the human imuunodefici
ency virus. There were twenty-six total hip arthroplasties performed w
ith cement, six total hip arthroplasties performed without cement, one
total hip arthroplasty in which the femoral component was inserted wi
th cement and the acetabular component was inserted without it (so-cal
led hybrid arthroplasty), and one bipolar arthroplasty performed with
cement, There were no early infections after these thirty-four primary
arthroplasties, There were three late infections around prostheses in
serted with cement, and ah led to a resection arthroplasty. Six (21 pe
r cent) of the twenty-eight cemented femoral components and six (23 pe
r cent) of the twenty-six cemented acetabular components were revised
because of aseptic loosening, Of the twenty-four cemented femoral comp
onents for which radiographs were available and that were still in pla
ce at the time of this review or at the time of death, ten were defini
tely loose, two were probably loose, five were possibly loose, and sev
en had no evidence of loosening, Of the twenty-three cemented acetabul
ar components for which radiographs were available and that were still
in place at the time of this review ten were definitely loose, seven
were probably loose, three were possibly loose, and three were not loo
se, None of the prostheses that had been inserted without cement were
loose. There was a high rate of loosening of the cemented hip prosthes
es in these patients. There was also a high rate of mortality over-all
and a high rate of late deep infection in the patients who were serop
ositive for the human immunodeficiency virus.