A research team led by Mayo Clinic has found a national trend toward younger, more diverse patients having total knee replacement surgery. The findings were presented today at the 2010 annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in New Orleans.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Hospital Discharge Survey were compared for 1990-1994 and 2002-2006 for patients having total knee replacements (also known as total knee arthroplasty). About 800,000 procedures were performed in 1990-1994, and 2.1 million in 2002-2006.
Researchers found the average age of total knee replacement patients decreased by two years (from 70 years to 68 years) between the two time periods and that the percentage of minorities increased by 1.4 percent (from 8 percent to 9.4 percent).
The study also found that Medicare is paying less for total knee replacements, and the length of hospital stays decreased. The Medicare payment for the procedures dropped from 72 percent to 61 percent. Hospital stays went from 8.4 days to 3.9 days. This coincides with an increase in the number of patients going to short- or long-term care facilities after surgery.
“This information will be useful for planning for the future,” says Michele D’Apuzzo, M.D., the Mayo Clinic orthopedic surgery resident who led the study. “Total knee replacements aren’t going away any time soon. We’re going to be seeing younger patients undergoing this procedure. Younger patients have a higher chance of getting revisions, and physicians and medical facilities need to prepare for that.”
Below is a link to an edited youtube video with Dr. D’Apruzzo.
Hello Sir,
I am writing in for help in helping my father. My father had a left knee replacement in 2007 and the sweelng never went down it just kept filling up with fluids. They proceeded to drain the knee on and off for 1 year and then decided to remove the knee and do another knee replacement using a different type of knee. So in 2008 he had his second left knee replacement and had the same problems as the first surgery. The continued to drain the fluid and within days the fluid was back. After 2 years in 2010 they decided they would go in and do more surgery where they cut his fluid sac and did something with his itc cuff or somethig like that and they stated before they started the sugery they did not know what they where going to do until they got in and looked. So after my father had the surgery in 2010 the knee still fills up with fluid and his knee it feels hot like fever all the time. 2 weeks ago he went and had a CT scan done of his left knee where he waited on the results. The Doctor where he had the Ct scan done stated it looked like his knee was full of infection due to the x-ray showed up with alot of color showing all the infection. Well the results where sent back to his knee Doctor and he had him come in to take a sample to send to lab and his Doctor stated he was going to a conference out of town and would ask other Doctors there opinion’s because he had no clue as to why this was happening. His Doctor came back in town and called with the results and said there was no infection present and that he had no reason as to why this is happening. Sir I saw my father adain today and he is always in pain I can’t stand to see him like this anymore. Not only is he having problems with his Left knee his right knee has been needing a knee replacement and since the left knee he has to hold off on the right causing all the pressure while walking to be placed on his right. If I could take all of his pain I would. I am just asking for help from anyone that may know what he needs to do or help by research. Thank you so much for your time it is very appreciated.
Sincerely, Christi Allen