OBJECTIVE: Researches on total hip replacements are always the hot spots in recent years. The replacements have obtained satisfactory outcomes in clinic. However, the long-term effect is limited because of the material and technical problems. This paper is to summarize the developmental trend and the prospect of clinical application for total hip replacements in 10 years.DATA SOURCES: A computer-based online search of Medline database was undertaken to identify relevant articles published in English from January 1996 to January 2006 by using the keywords of "total hip replacements, surgical robot, tissue engineering, virtual endoscopy". Meanwhile,Chinese relevant articles published from January 1990 to December 2005 were searched in Wanfang database, the keywords were "total hip replacements, material, virtual endoscopy, surgical robot, tissue engineering" in Chinese.STUDY SELECTION: The articles were primarily checked, and the references in each literature were reviewed. Articles about the study on total hip replacements were involved; Meanwhile, the repetitive studies or Meta analysis were excluded.DATA EXTRACTION: Totally 39 relevant articles were collected, and 22 of them accorded with the. Inclusive criteria, 17 old or repetitive ones were excluded. Of the 22 articles, 5 were about the influence of artificial joint material on prosthetic loosening and its carcinogenesis; 2 about the microinvasion of joint replacement induced by computer-aided surgery navigation; 1 about the introduction of surgical robot; 3 about the development of custom-made and specially made artificial joint; 9 about the possibility for the surface replacement of hip; and 2 about the combination of tissue engineering technique and artificial joint.DATA SYNTHESIS: Modern researches on total hip replacements are exploring wearing tolerant prosthesis to reduce the prosthetic loosening caused by osteolysis and bone resorption. The computer-aided design/made technique is used for special design and manufacture according to the need of disease, so as to solve the fracture around prosthesis and meet the need of limb salvage surgery. The computer-aided surgery navigation realizes the microinvasion of joint replacement and the fast recovery after surgery. The successful rate of total hip replacements is improved by developing localized surgical robot in China. By using the virtual endoscopy, we can accurately know the damaged conditions of intraarticular cartilage and sub-cartilage bone, which are also able to be quantifized, so that more suitable and reliable prosthesis can be selected to increase the accuracy. The tissue engineering technique in repairing defect can increase the synostosis of prosthesis, and perfect the technique of joint replacement.CONCLUSION: In the coming 10 years, total hip replacements will develop towards stability, harmlessness, microinvasion, mechanization, individualization and diversification, so that the total hip replacements will be much stander and safer with higher successful rate.