Hip and knee joint replacement is nowadays one of the most common surgeries in Germany. The frequency of peri- and post-operative complications varies depending on the study. Since 2001, every hospital in Germany is required to report any peri- and post-operative complication to an external institute for quality control. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the published data of these institutes and to differentiate between the rate of peri- and early postoperative complications of conventional and computer navigated surgical procedures. The hypothesis of the study was that there is no increase in the rate of peri- and early post-operative complications as a result of the navigated surgical procedure. A retrospective analysis of the data on primary total knee and hip replacements between 2004 and 2012 were conducted. The share of navigated procedures, additional operating time due to navigation, the peri- and early post-operative surgical and general rates of complications and the comparison of patient population (age, sex and ASA-classification) were subject of the analysis.Introduction
Materials and Methods