THE LEARNING-CURVE OF TOTAL HIP-ARTHROPLASTY

Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is one of the major breakthroughs in mode rn orthopedics this century. Since its introduction in the early 1960s by Sir J. Charnley, it has become the most common form of arthroplast y. The art of per-forming THA has developed to a large exo tent, yet w ith the inevitable ''price'' of a learning curve. The rates of early a nd late complications reported in the orthopedic literature have been decreasing gradually, along with improved short- and long-term results . We report the results of two similar series of THA performed with an interval of 15 to 20 years, which show that the improvement of the re sults that form the learning curve of THA at our institution is statis tically significant.