and posterior approaches to the hip It is subject to injury by compression and ischemia in sedentary individuals, resulting in difficulty in rising from a sitting position and difficulty climbing stairs. The incidence of damage to the inferior gluteal nerve after replacement of the hip is still uncertain. Peripheral nerve injury may occur during operations on the hip as a result of operative trauma associated with stretching and retraction of the nerve. Few studies have focused on damage to the inferior gluteal nerve during hip replacement. In ten other patients who had a posterior approach, nine had abnormal electromyographic findings in inferior gluteal innervated muscles and eight of the ten also had abnormalities in superior gluteal innervated muscles. They suggested that abnormalities of gait after the operation may be due to injury to these nerves. The reduction in walking speed and persistently abnormal gait, sometimes seen in patients one year after total hip replacement, were associated with a decrease in the extensor moment with a resultant decrease in the range of extension of the hip and a reduction in the abductor moment. When a muscle-splitting incision is made across gluteus maximus as part of the classical posterior approach and the muscle parted by hand-held or self-retaining retractors, the likelihood of damage to the inferior gluteal nerve is high. The nerve enters the deep surface of the muscle and is not easily visualised and differentiated from other structures running with it, such as the blood vessels. Parting the muscle damages the nerve further by stretching or even rupturing its branches which run superiorly on its deep surface. Entrapment neuropathy is an underrecognized cause of pain and functional impairment caused by acute or chronic injury to peripheral nerves. Although nerves may be injured anywhere along their course, they are more prone to compression, entrapment, or stretching as they traverse anatomically vulnerable regions, such as superficial or geographically constrained spaces. Subclinical electromyographic abnormalities of both the superior and inferior gluteal nerves have been described in up to 77% of patients after total hip replacement, regardless of the surgical approach. The posterior approach is the most common and practical of those used to expose the hip joint. The posterior approaches allow excellent visualization of the femoral shaft, thus are popular for revision joint replacement surgery in cases in which the femoral component needs to be replaced. The likelihood of damage to the inferior gluteal