The resultant hip joint force, its orientation and the moments were measured in two patients during walking and running using telemetering total hip prostheses. One patient underwent bilateral joint replacement and a second patient, additionally suffering from a neuropathic disease and atactic gait patterns, received one instrumented hip implant. The joint loading was observed over the first 30 and 18 months, respectively, following implantation. In the first patient the median peak forces increased with the walking speed from about 280% of the patient's body weight (BW) at 1 km h-1 to approximately 480% BW at 5 km h-1. Jogging and very fast walking both raised the forces to about 550% BW; stumbling on one occasion caused magnitudes of 720% BW. In the second patient median forces at 3 km h-1 were about 410% BW and a force of 870% BW was observed during stumbling. During all types of activities, the direction of the peak force in the frontal plane changed only slightly when the force magnitude was high. Perpendicular to the long femoral axis, the peak force acted predominantly from medial to lateral. The component from ventral to dorsal increased at higher force magnitudes. In one hip in the first patient and in the second patient the direction of large forces approximated the average anteversion of the natural femur. The torsional moments around the stem of the implant were 40.3 N m in the first patient and 24 N m in the second.