Pre-operative and postoperative radiographs of both hips and pelvis of 160 Malaysian and Australian patients who had undergone Total Hip Replacement (THR) were reviewed.

The purpose of the study was to determine morphometric differences in each group that could influence sizing and positioning of cemented total hip implants.

In order to measure distances and diameters, we used OSIRIS, a digital radiographic analysis tool provided on the internet by the Department of Medical Imaging, University of Geneva.

The known head sizes of the implants were used to calibrate OSIRIS.

The patient groups were subdivided into three. We discovered that in general the sizes of the Malaysian population began 1 size below that of the Australian patients.

The dimensionally larger 2 groups of the Malaysian patients were similar to the smaller 2 groups of the Australian population leaving a group of small Malaysian femora for whom there were fewer suitable implants

We conclude that more work needs to be done to provide suitable implants for South East Asian patients.