Introduction Standard physiotherapy rehabilitation fails to restore normal levels of muscle mass, strength and physical function in patients following elective total hip arthroplasty for osteoarthritis. Consequently, more intense forms of exercise rehabilitation have been advocated for these patients. The aim of this article was to review the controlled trials that have evaluated post-total-hip-arthroplasty exercise interventions aimed at improving function. Materials and methods The electronic databases MEDLINE and CINAHL were searched using the following terms: ‘total hip arthroplasty/replacement’, ‘exercise’, ‘rehabilitation’ and ‘function’. This search was expanded by hand-checking the reference lists of the studies and reviews identified by electronic scanning. Results Thirteen appropriate studies (18 papers) were identified, comprising 8 ‘early’ intervention studies (