Aims

Due to the opioid epidemic in the USA, our service progressively decreased the number of opioid tablets prescribed at discharge after primary hip (THA) and knee (TKA) arthroplasty. The goal of this study was to analyze the effect on total morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs) prescribed and post-discharge opioid repeat prescriptions.

Introduction

The utility and yield of the current practice of routine screening of asymptomatic patients after primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is unclear. The purpose of this prospective survey study was to determine the utility of the routine on year follow up visit primary THA and TKA.

Aims

The Forgotten Joint Score-12 (FJS-12) is a validated patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) tool designed to assess artificial prosthesis awareness during daily activities following total hip arthroplasty (THA). The patient-acceptable symptom state (PASS) is the minimum cut-off value that corresponds to a patient’s satisfactory state-of-health. Despite the validity and reliability of the FJS-12 having been previously demonstrated, the PASS has yet to be clearly defined. This study aims to define the PASS of the FJS-12 following primary THA.

This trial aims to assess the effectiveness of quality improvement collaboratives as a technique to introduce large-scale change and improve outcomes for patients undergoing primary elective total hip or total knee arthroplasty. 41 NHS Trusts that did not have; a preoperative anaemia screening and optimisation pathways, or a methicillin sensitive Staphylococcus Aureus (MSSA) decolonisation pathway, in place were randomised to one of two parallel collaboratives in a two arm, cluster randomised controlled trial. Each collaborative focussed on implementing one of these two preoperative pathways. Collaboratives took place from May 2018 to November 2019. 27 Trusts completed the trial. Outcome data were collected for procedures between November 2018 and November 2019. Co-primary outcomes were perioperative blood transfusion (within 7 days of surgery) and deep surgical site infections (SSI) caused by MSSA (within 90 days) for the anaemia and MSSA arms respectively. Secondary outcomes include deep and superficial SSIs (any organism), length of stay, critical care admissions, and readmissions. Process measures include the proportion of patients receiving each preoperative initiative. 19,254 procedures from 27 Trusts are included. Process measures show both preoperative pathways were implemented to a high degree (75.3% compliance in MSSA arm; 61.2% anaemia arm), indicating that QICs can facilitate change in the NHS. However, there were no improvements in blood transfusions (2.9% v 2.3% adjusted-OR 1.20, 95% CI 0.52–2.75, p=0.67), MSSA deep SSIs (0.13% v 0.14% adjusted-OR 1.01, 95%CI 0.42–2.46, p=0.98), or any secondary outcome. Whilst no significant improvement in patient outcomes were seen, this trial shows quality improvement collaboratives can successfully support the implementation of new preoperative pathways in planned surgery in the NHS

Tranexamic Acid (TXA) is now commonly used in major surgical operations including orthopaedics. The TRAC-24 randomised control trial aimed to assess if an additional 24 hours of TXA post – operatively in primary total hip (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) reduced blood loss. Contrary to other orthopaedic studies to date this trial included high risk patients. This paper presents the results of a cost analysis undertaken alongside this RTC. TRAC-24 was a prospective randomised controlled trial on patients undergoing TKA and THA. Three groups were included, Group 1 received 1 g intravenous (IV) TXA perioperatively and an additional 24-hour post-operative oral regime, group 2 received only the perioperative dose and group 3 did not receive TXA. Cost analysis was performed out to day 90. Group 1 was associated with the lowest mean total costs, followed by group 2 and then group 3. The difference between groups 1 and 3 −£797.77 (95% CI −1478.22, −117.32) were statistically significant. Extended oral dosing reduced costs for patients undergoing THA but not TKA. The reduced costs in groups 1 and 2 resulted from reduced length of stay, readmission rates, Accident and Emergency (A&E) attendances and blood transfusions. This study demonstrated significant cost savings when using TXA in primary THA or TKA. Extended oral dosing reduced costs further in THA but not TKA

Introduction. This analysis aims to provide an update of the Level-IV Partners Arthroplasty Registry (PAR), a quality-improvement initiative and research data repository. Methods. The Harris Joint Registry was founded in 1969 and has since expanded to become the Partners Arthroplasty Registry (PAR). Today, the PAR captures data on total hip and total knee arthroplasties conducted at seven hospitals in Massachusetts. Over time, data has been sourced through independent collection at a single hospital, retrospective sourcing through the Research Patient Data Registry (RPDR), and currently through the Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW). Various statistical methods analyzed changing trends of care provided to patients across affiliated institutions. PROMs collected in the PAR are the PROMIS Physical Function and Global Health Short Forms, the HOOS and KOOS. The registry is an associate member of ISAR and will incorporate the international implant library. Results. The PAR contains demographic, implant-specifics, and radiographic data for 45,645 primary arthroplasties and 8,400 revision surgeries from 1998 to 2018. The average recorded Charlson Comorbidity Index is 0.98. Average length of stay prior to home or care facility discharge decreased from 5.00 days in 2001 to 3.00 days in 2018. The average 30-day and 90-day mortality rates for 2018 were 0. 18% and 0.28%, respectively. Home discharge increased from 30.1% to 79.0% from 2001–2018. The values for these parameters are varied across the seven sites. Conclusion. The PAR can be used to develop best practices, analyze health-care economics, and promote evidence-based medicine. We are also developing a platform for registry development that can be exported by other hospitals that utilize an Epic-based record system. For any tables or figures, please contact the authors directly

Introduction. The practice of overlapping surgery has been increasing in the delivery of orthopaedic care, aiming to provide efficient, high-quality care. However, there have been concerns about the safety of this practice. The purpose of this study is to examine safety and efficacy of a model of partially overlapping surgery that we termed “the swing room” in practice in primary hip and knee arthroplasty. Methods. A retrospective review of prospectively collected data using an administrative database was carried out on patients who underwent primary unilateral total hip and total knee arthroplasty from 2006 to 2017 at two sites of one academic center staffed by four arthroplasty surgeons. All revisions and bilateral primary procedures were excluded. Cases were stratified as overlapping or non-overlapping. Overlapping was defined when a surgeon had access to two operating rooms with two teams, and non-overlapping was defined as when a surgeon only had access to a single operating room on a particular day. Patient demographic characteristics, operating room time, procedure time, length of stay, Postoperative complications within 30 days of the procedure, unplanned hospital readmissions, unplanned reoperations, and emergency department visits were collected. The Fisher's exact Wilcoxon rank-sum test and logistic regression analysis were used for statistical analysis. Results. Of 12,225 cases were performed at our institution, 10600 cases (86.7%) were overlapping, and 1625 cases (13.3%) were non-overlapping. There was no difference in the mean age, sex, BMI, side and length of stay between patients who underwent overlapping surgery and those who underwent non- overlapping surgery. Operating room time was significantly shorter in the overlapping surgery group 58.2 min compared to the non-overlapping group 62.8 min p <0.001. There was no significant difference in complications (1.4% non-overlapping vs. 1.3% overlapping; p =0.801) and 30 days readmission (2.9% non-overlapping vs. 3.4% overlapping; p=0.300). Conclusion. The new “swing room” model yields similar short-term outcomes with no increase in complication rates compared to standard single room surgery in primary hip and knee arthroplasty practice. For any tables or figures, please contact the authors directly

Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman described Moral Hazard as “…any situation in which one person makes the decision about how much risk to take, while someone else bears the cost if things go badly”. The fidelity of some surgeons to their patients has been brought into question by recent press reports exposing a practice whereby one attending surgeon will be responsible for two patients undergoing surgery simultaneously. This is variously referred to as Overlapping Surgery, Concurrent Surgery, Simultaneous Surgery, Double-Booked Surgery or Ghost Surgery. This practice entails surgeons in training (residents and fellows) performing varying degrees of the patient's surgery while the attending surgeon is operating elsewhere. In general, the patient is not informed of this substitution. When informed, most would not allow it. Defenders of this practice site surgeon and hospital “efficiency”, independent operating experience by trainees, mass casualty triage and access to “in-demand” specialists. Critics feel it “is a breach of ethical behavior”, that “The most likely motive for this is profit for both the surgeon and hospital” and “Overlapping surgery… threatens our obligation as orthopaedic surgeons to respect the primacy of patient welfare…”. The American College of Surgeons, in response to public disclosures, created a policy on Overlapping Surgery. Its executive director wrote, “It is essential that the patient be informed of this practice and given enough notice so they may decide whether to seek care from another surgeon or at another institution*. The US Senate Finance Committee investigated Overlapping/Concurrent Surgery practices. It expressed concerns over − 1) lack of informed consent, 2) plausible risks to patient safety, 3) use of Medicare billing regulations to determine acceptable surgical practices and 4) surgeons self- defining the “critical part” of the operation. Studies to date do not resolve the propriety of this practice. All but one is short term. Most show longer surgical durations. Most show no increase in 30-day complication rates. The only long- term study found a 90% increase in complication rate in hip procedures at one year when surgery overlapped. None document the location of the surgeon during the procedure or report efficacy. Over 7 million living Americans are beneficiaries of either a total hip or total knee replacement. These patients are made whole, their suffering relieved, their function and lives restored. These miracles of modern medicine are not without cost. The United States spends $3.5 trillion dollars annually on health care, almost 20% of our GDP. Delivering health care is a grave responsibility and any person involved in it must understand the importance and consequences of their actions. The third leading cause of American deaths is medical errors. A recent study estimated that 4 out of 100 patients entering the hospital for surgery will die within seven days. Recognizing this, a surgeon's role as a patient's moral fiduciary, concerned primarily with protecting the interests of the patient, must be honored as a sacred trust. The financial pressure on the surgeon from stagnant surgical fees is the elephant in the room that must be addressed in relation to this matter. When fees are cut, surgeons operate more. Plato, in The Republic, recounts an allegory about a magic ring that makes its wearer invisible. He asks the question; Will the power of anonymity eliminate morality and ethics? When we as surgeons become “invisible” to our anesthetized patients during surgery, how will we answer that question?

With the increasing demand for hip and knee replacement, and the increasing pressure to move towards routine seven-day services within the National Health Service, the trend towards weekend operating is set to increase. We aimed to determine whether planned, elective total hip and total knee replacement performed at the weekend is associated with a different 30-day mortality versus those performed between Monday and Friday. We used National Joint Registry of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Isle of Man (NJR) linked to Office for National Statistics (ONS) data. The study dataset comprised 118,096 joint replacement episodes performed at the weekend and 1,233,882 episodes done on a weekday. The main outcome measure was 30-day all-causes mortality. We applied a survivorship analysis using a Kaplan-Meier framework to examine the 30-day cumulative mortality rate for all elective hip and knee replacements performed in England and Wales between 1st April 2003 and 31st December 2014, with Cox proportional-hazards regression models to assess for time-dependent variation and adjust for identified risk factors for mortality. For hip replacement the cumulative 30-day mortality was 0.15% (95%CI: 0.12–0.19) for patients operated on at the weekend versus 0.20% (0.19–0.21) for patients undergoing surgery during the normal working week. For knee replacement the cumulative 30-day mortality was 0.14% (0.11–0.17) for patients operated on at the weekend versus 0.18% (0.17–0.19) for patients undergoing surgery during the normal working week. The lower mortality associated with weekend operating was most apparent in the later years of the audit (2009 to 2014) and remained after adjustment for any differences in patient age, gender, American Society of Anaesthesiologist grade, surgeon seniority, surgical and anaesthetic practices, and thrombo-prophylaxis choice in weekend versus weekday operated patients. Hip and knee replacements are routinely performed on Saturdays, and to a lesser extent on Sundays, in England and Wales and are not associated with an increased risk of post-operative mortality

Purpose. Obesity has previously been demonstrated to be an independent risk factor for increased complications following total hip (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of obesity and BMI to determine whether the magnitude of the effect was similar for both procedures. Materials & Methods. We queried the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) database to identify patients who underwent primary THA or TKA between 2010 and 2014. Patients were stratified by procedure and classified as non-obese, obese, or morbidly obese according to BMI. Thirty-day rates of wound complications, deep infection, total complications, and reoperation were compared using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Results. We identified 64,648 patients who underwent THA and 97,137 patients who underwent TKA. Obese THA patients had significantly higher rates of wound complications (1.53% vs 0.96%), deep infection (0.31% vs 0.17%), reoperation rate (2.11% vs 1.02%), and total complications (5.22% vs. 4.63%) compared to TKA patients. Morbidly obese patients undergoing THA were also found to have significantly higher rates of wound complications (3.25% vs 1.52%), deep infection (0.84% vs 0.23%), reoperation rate (3.65% vs 1.60%), and total complications (7.36% vs. 5.57%). Multivariate regression analysis identified increasingly higher odds of each outcome measure as BMI increased. Conclusions. This study demonstrates the impact of obesity on postoperative complications is more profound for THA than TKA. This emphasizes the importance of considering patient comorbidities in the context of the specific procedure (hips and knees should be analyzed independently) when assessing risks of surgery

Aims

The prevalence of ipsilateral total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is rising in concert with life expectancy, putting more patients at risk for interprosthetic femur fractures (IPFFs). Our study aimed to assess treatment methodologies, implant survivorship, and IPFF clinical outcomes.

Obesity has previously been demonstrated to be an independent risk factor for increased complications following total hip (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of obesity and BMI to determine whether the magnitude of the effect was similar for both procedures. We queried the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) database to identify patients who underwent primary THA or TKA between 2010 and 2014. Patients were stratified by procedure and classified as non-obese, obese, or morbidly obese according to BMI. Thirty-day rates of wound complications, deep infection, total complications, and reoperation were compared using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. We identified 64,648 patients who underwent THA and 97,137 patients who underwent TKA. Obese THA patients had significantly higher rates of wound complications (1.53% vs 0.96%), deep infection (0.31% vs 0.17%), reoperation rate (2.11% vs 1.02%), and total complications (5.22% vs. 4.63%) compared to TKA patients. Morbidly obese patients undergoing THA were also found to have significantly higher rates of wound complications (3.25% vs 1.52%), deep infection (0.84% vs 0.23%), reoperation rate (3.65% vs 1.60%), and total complications (7.36% vs. 5.57%). Multivariate regression analysis identified increasingly higher odds of each outcome measure as BMI increased. This study demonstrates the impact of obesity on postoperative complications is more profound for THA than TKA. This emphasizes the importance of considering patient comorbidities in the context of the specific procedure (hips and knees should be analyzed independently) when assessing risks of surgery

Introduction. The American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR) was created to capture total hip (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) procedural data in order to conduct implant-specific survivorship analyses, produce risk-adjusted patient outcome data, and provide hospitals and surgeons with quality benchmarks. The purpose of this study is to compare early reports from the AJRR to other national registries to identify similarities and differences in surgeon practice and potential topics for future analysis. Methods. Hip arthroplasty data were extracted from the annual reports from the AJRR and other national registries including: the Australian registry; the New Zealand registry; the United Kingdom, Wales, and Isle of Man registry; the Norwegian registry; and the Swedish registry from 2014 to 2016. Data regarding femoral and acetabular fixation, bearing surface type, femoral head size, the use of dual mobility articulation bearings, hip resurfacing utilization, and THA revision burden were evaluated. Revision burden is defined as the ratio of implant revisions to the total number of arthroplasties performed in a given time period. Registry characteristics and patient demographic data were recorded across all registries. The results were compared between the various registries and reported using descriptive statistics. Results. In 2016, the AJRR captured data from approximately 28% of all arthroplasty procedures performed in the United States, compared to 95–98% amongst the other registries that were evaluated. Total hip arthroplasty patients in the AJRR were similar to the other registries, with a mean age of 66.6 years for primary THA compared to a range of 67.0–69.0 years amongst the other registries. The operative diagnoses varied for primary THA between the registries. Osteoarthritis was the most common diagnosis but it represented 93% of patients in the UK and Wales registry,. 79% in the AJRR and 76.5% in the Norwegian registry. THA practices in the AJRR revealed much higher usage of cementless femoral and acetabular components (93%). In comparison, the other registries reported variable rates of usage of cementless femoral and acetabular fixation including: Australian registry (63.4%); United Kingdom and Wales (38.5%); New Zealand registry (39.1%) and the Swedish registry (21.8%). In the AJRR ceramic heads (52.8%) and 36mm heads (60.2%) were most frequently used; in all other registries metal heads (52.7–69.4%) and 32mm heads (37.0–72.7%) were the most popular. Dual mobility articulations were infrequently reported by the other registries but accounted for 8% of primary THAs and 28% of revision THAs in the AJRR. In 2016 the THA revision burden was 8.6% in the AJRR compared to 8.2 – 13.8% in the other registries. Conclusion. The present study offers an early comparison of data reported by the AJRR and other national registries and identifies several differences in THA practice patterns between the United States and other countries. As the AJRR continues to grow, future studies should focus on understanding why international differences in total joint arthroplasty practice trends exist and differences in outcomes associated with these practices

Aims

Routine surveillance of primary hip and knee arthroplasties has traditionally been performed with office follow-up visits at one year postoperatively. The value of these visits is unclear. The present study aims to determine the utility and burden of routine clinical follow-up at one year after primary arthroplasty to patients and providers.

Aims

This study aimed to determine if macrophages can attach and directly affect the oxide layers of 316L stainless steel, titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V), and cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy (CoCrMo) by releasing components of these alloys.

Aims

Several radiological methods of measuring anteversion of the acetabular component after total hip arthroplasty (THA) have been described. These are limited by low reproducibility, are less accurate than CT 3D reconstruction, and are cumbersome to use. These methods also partly rely on the identification of obscured radiological borders of the component. We propose two novel methods, the Area and Orthogonal methods, which have been designed to maximize use of readily identifiable points while maintaining the same trigonometric principles.

Objectives

The diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) is difficult and requires a battery of tests and clinical findings. The purpose of this review is to summarize all current evidence for common and new serum biomarkers utilized in the diagnosis of PJI.