OBJECTIVE: The success of joint prosthesis greatly depends on the materials, which should be a perfect combination of physics, chemistry, biomechanics and clinical sciences in choice of them. In addition, the effect of manufacture technology can not be neglected. So, it is significant to probe into the systematic basis in materials selection of joint prosthesis.DATA SOURCES: A computer-based search was conducted in Pubmed database for articles about joint prosthesis published before April 2006 with the key words of "artificial joint materials, biomaterial", and the language was limited to English. Meanwhile, Chinese Journal Full-text Database (CJFD) and Wanfang database were looked for relevant literatures published before April 2006 with the key words of "artificial joint material, biomedical material", and the language was limited to Chinese. Besides,the standards for materials were searched in Chinese service net for standard consultation with the key words of "implants for surgery" in both Chinese and English. At the same time, relevant books were also manually searched.STUDY SELECTION: Data were checked in the first trial, and related articles according to the criteria of research were looked for the full text.Inclusion criteria: ① Requirements for artificial joint material. ② Relevant standards for artificial joint of surgical implants. Exclusion criteria: Repetitive studies were excluded.DATA EXTRACTION: A total of 390 domestic and overseas articles,which were in relation to the mechanical properties of artificial joint material and bone and measurement of the overall dimensions of knee joint,were collected. There were still 242 relevant standards, while the repetitive studies and similar researches were excluded. Ten typical articles and 25 standards in collection were summed up and reviewed.DATA SYNTHESIS: ①Close combination of physics, chemistry, biomechanics and clinical sciences is sufficiently embodied in the selection of the materials. ② Two aspects must be taken into consideration: Requirements for function of the implant and the responses inside the human body.③ Main types of materials for joint prosthesis: biomedical metallic material, biomedical inorganic material of nonmetal, bioceramic, biomedical compound materials and so on. All kinds of materials that have been adopted should accord with the international or state or trade standards.④ The final determination of materials should meet the comprehensive requirements of standards, laws and regulations, as well as strategic targeting. CONCLUSION: Based on engineering, the fundamental principles of materials selection for joint prosthesis are illustrated from the following angles: clinical requirements for materials of replacement, attentions in joint prosthesis design, commonly used biomedicine materials performance, requirements of product registration and laws & regulations related to the materials, the strategy in the choice of material standard etc. As a result, a valuable system approach is provided for joint-prosthesis designers to select materials.