We summarise and highlight the safety concerns
within the field of trauma and orthopaedic surgery with particular
emphasis placed on current controversies and reforms within the United
Kingdom National Health Service.
Previous studies from single centres or single-surgeon
series report good early and mid-term results for high tibial osteotomy
(HTO) in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee. However, the
survivorship of HTO at a national level is unknown. This registry-based
study included 3195 high HTOs performed between 1987 and 2008. Kaplan-Meier analysis
revealed an overall survivorship of 89% (95% confidence interval
(CI) 88 to 90) at five years and 73% (95% CI 72 to 75) at ten years,
when conversion to total knee replacement was taken as the endpoint.
Females and patients aged >
50 years had worse survivorship than
males or patients aged ≤ 50 years (hazard ratio (HR) 1.26 (95% CI
1.11 to 1.43) and HR 1.41 (95% CI 1.23 to 1.64), respectively).
The survivorship of HTOs performed between 1998 to 2008 was worse
than for those performed between 1987 and 1997.