Abstract
With increasing primary joint replacement procedures and an ageing population surviving longer, the rate of revision surgery will increase. Revision surgery, however, is associated with increased morbidity and mortality and has a far less successful outcome than primary joint replacement. The mid- to long-term survival rate of the large variety of replacement prostheses remains unknown. Inadequate outcomes data for the majority of prostheses, as well as variability related to different surgical techniques and diagnostic groups, have made it difficult for surgeons to identify the relative effectiveness of different prostheses and treatments. The Federal Government provided funding to the Australian Orthopaedic Association (AOA) to establish the National Joint Replacement Registry (NJRR) in March 1998. The AOA has appointed a committee to manage the Registry and has contracted with the Data Management and Analysis Centre at the University of Adelaide to establish and manage the data systems for the Registry.
The primary aim of the AOA NJRR is to evaluate the effectiveness of different types of joint replacement prostheses and surgical techniques at a national level.
Implementation methods, aspects of database design and early progress in data collection are presented.
The abstracts were prepared by Professor Jegan Krishnan. Correspondence should be addressed to him at the Flinders Medical Centre, Bedford Park 5047, Australia.
