We reviewed 25 patients (26 hips) who had received a Charnley low-friction arthroplasty dunring the period 1974 to 1981. Average age of the patients was 58.5 years, and clinically the average JOA score was 78.3, at the time of last follow-up which was an average 11.5 years after surgery. Radiologic assessment of the socket (using Charnley's method) and the stem (Nagaya's method) at the time of last follow-up showed 11.5% of the hips to be Grade 4 (of the socket) and 7.7% were Grade 4 (of the stem). The survivorship rate (Kaplan-Meier method) was 91.0% in the socket and 96.2% in the stem. The average rate of socket wear was 0.10mm per year. Revisions were performed in one stem 7 years after surgery and another, socket and stem, 14 years after surgery.
