Twelve prosthetic hip and knee replacements (eight bipolar endoprosthetic replacements, three conventional total hip replacements, and one hemiarthroplasty of the knee) were implanted between 1978 and 1988 in eleven patients who underwent hemodialysis for chronic renal insufficiency. Five replacements (three conventional total hip replacements, one bipolar endoprosthetic replacement, and one hemiarthroplasty of the knee) in four patients had a failure due to the loosening of the component. In these four patients, the median age at operation was 51 years and the average length of follow-up was 6 years. One of these patients died of infection in both loosened total hip replacements seven years and four months after the operation.