Clinical and radiographic follow-up was performed on a consecutive series of 105 patients who underwent 120 total hip arthroplasties at the authors' institution from 1983 to 1988 with a straight, cobalt-chrome femoral stem implanted using a second-generation cementing technique. The mean age at the time of surgery was 68.5 years, and the mean follow-up was 16 years. At 16 years' follow-up, the prevalence of revision for aseptic loosening of the Spectron femoral component was only 4.2%; 5 stems were revised for aseptic loosening at a mean of 10.2 years after implantation. Sixteen-year survivorship of the component was 93.9% +/- 2.7% when revision for aseptic loosening was taken as the endpoint or 90.3% +/- 4.4% when either revision for aseptic loosening or radiographic evidence of loosening was taken as the endpoint.