steoarthritis is one of the most common conditions in industrialized nations (1). According to a survey of the Robert Koch Institute conducted in 2010, the lifetime prevalence of degenerative joint disease (osteoarthritis), is 27% for women and 18% for men, with the knee and hip joints being the most common sites (2). Joint replacement is indicated in patients with advanced osteoarthritis of the hip in the presence of relevant functional impairments and joint pain when conservative treatment options have failed. Registry studies have shown that total hip replacement resulted in significant pain reduction, improved day-today functioning and better health-related quality of life (3-6). In many patients, decreases in muscle strength are already noted years before surgery. Exercise physio-Summary Background: Sport rehabilitation is a reimbursable intervention assisting reintegration and self-help. In this study, we measured the effects of sport rehabilitation on muscle strength around the hip joint at 1 year after surgery, as well as cardiopulmonary endurance performance and stability of stance, in patients who had undergone a first implantation of a total hip endoprosthesis (total hip replacement, THR) as a treatment for osteoarthritis of the hip. Methods: 160 patients were randomly allotted either to an intervention group with intensive sport rehabilitation for the first year or to a control group. At three time points (baseline, six and twelve months after surgery), measurements were made of muscular strength around the hip joint (with isokinetic dynamometry), stability of stance, and endurance performance. The primary endpoint was the change in strength of the hip extensors, abductors, flexors, and adductors at twelve months after surgery. Results: With respect to the primary endpoint, the results were not significantly better in patients who had received sport rehabilitation than in those who had not. At one year, the patients in the intervention group had less pain as measured by the WOMAC pain score (p = 0.023), though the size of this effect was small (r = 0.27). Health-related quality of life was higher in the intervention group at six months, albeit with a small effect size (p = 0.036, r = 0.25); this was no longer demonstrable at one year. The other parameters studied displayed no significant changes. Conclusion: This trial did not demonstrate any significant benefit of sports rehabilitation on functional outcomes in patients who had undergone total hip replacement. Nonetheless, positive trends after the intervention were seen in some parameters. The unexpectedly high dropout rate had been underestimated in the planning phase of the trial; further trials with larger numbers of patients should be performed.