The bulk of the papers in STP 1178 are concerned with orthopaedic applications. Despite the optimism about the potential of orthopaedic applications of composites, the emphasis of many of these papers is caution. Orthopaedic prosthetic devices are nonredundant systems that are not easily replaced. Failure of a single component in a system or a material could lead to loss of function of the device and require a revision operation. Consequently, many of the methods presented relate to the long-term viability of the composite materials and devices.