In two patients who had a bateman total hip replacement arthroplasty after fracture of the femoral neck, dislocation of the femoral component occurred in the recovery room in one and dislocation and separation of the two components occured one month after arthroplasty in the other. Bateman reported on seventy patients treated with his single-assembly total hip prosthesis in 1974, and stated that extensive testing had established the security of the locking system. He demonstrated that even though the head cup could slip out of the bearing insert occasionally, this never happened once the unit was completely assembled. However, in two of our patients the locking system failed and separation of the components occurred.