Susan Mehle

Analysis of unicompartmental knee arthroplasty in a community-based implant registry.

Radiation cross-linking increases the wear resistance of polyethylene used in total hip replacement. Radiation also generates residual free radicals, which are detrimental to long-term properties of polyethylene. Two approaches are used to stabilize the residual free radicals and terminally sterilize the components. One is postirradiation annealing with gas sterilization and the other is postirradiation melting with gamma sterilization in nitrogen. The hypothesis of the current study is that postirradiation annealing followed by gamma sterilization in nitrogen will result in more free radicals in polyethylene than gamma sterilization either in air or in nitrogen alone. To test this hypothesis, concentration of residual free radicals was quantified in polyethylene that was annealed and gamma sterilized in nitrogen and control polyethylenes gamma sterilized in air versus in nitrogen. Three crosslinked polyethylenes that were melted and gas sterilized also were included in the study. The effects of residual free radicals were studied by accelerated aging. Oxidation levels and weight loss in bidirectional pin-on-disk tests were determined before and after aging. Polyethylene that was subjected to postirradiation annealing and gamma sterilization resulted in 58% more residual free radicals than control polyethylenes. Weight loss of the annealed polyethylene increased by 16-fold on accelerated aging and had three times higher oxidation levels than that measured in control polyethylenes after aging. In contrast, polyethylenes that were stabilized with postirradiation melting and terminally gas sterilized showed no detectable residual free radicals. Accelerated aging did not affect the weight loss and oxidation levels of melted polyethylenes.

Why are total knee replacements revised?: analysis of early revision in a community knee implant registry.

Since 1991, 5760 knee arthroplasty procedures done by 53 surgeons have been registered in a community joint implant registry and were reviewed regarding initial revision done within the healthcare system. The 168 revisions done represented 2.9% of the knee arthroplasties between September 1991 and December 2002. Survival was defined as the absence of revision surgery. Death was considered a censored event. Cumulative survival rates for the different total knee arthroplasty configurations were: cemented total knee arthroplasty with all-polyethylene tibia, 99.2%; cemented total knee arthroplasty with metal-backed tibia, 96.3%; hybrid total knee arthroplasty, 89.3%; and unicondylar knee arthroplasty, 87.2%. Cemented total knee arthroplasty with metal-backed tibia had better survival than hybrid total knee arthroplasty, ingrowth total knee arthroplasty, and unicondylar knee arthroplasty. Cemented total knee arthroplasty with a metal-backed tibia did not have better survival than cemented total knee arthroplasty with an all-polyethylene tibia. Gender was not related to survival. Age was related to survival, with older patients’ knees surviving longer. Aseptic loosening or wear was the cause of revision in 40.8% of patients having total knee arthroplasty and 46.6% of patients having unicondylar knee arthroplasty, whereas progression of arthritis necessitated unicondylar knee revision in 51.2% of patients having that procedure. This study presents further evidence of the value of and ongoing need for total joint registries. Cemented total knee arthroplasty with all-polyethylene tibia and with metal-backed tibia showed more than 95% 10-year cumulative survival. Hybrid total knee arthroplasty, ingrowth total knee arthroplasty, and unicondylar knee arthroplasties did not show such good results.

Knee arthroplasty in the young patient: survival in a community registry.

Operative options for the younger patient with an arthritic knee remain controversial. We prospectively followed 1047 patients 55 years old or younger who underwent knee arthroplasty in a community joint registry over a 14-year period. Patients were implanted with 1047 joints of three predominant designs by 48 surgeons in four hospitals associated with a community joint registry. The mean age for this cohort was 49.8 years, and 62.8% (657/1047) of the patients were female. There were a total of 73 revisions performed, 5.6% (37/653) in women and 9.2% (36/394) in men. Cemented TKAs performed best, with a cumulative revision rate of 15.5%, compared to 32.3% in unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) patients and 34.1% in cementless designs. Men had a higher cumulative revision rate than women, 31.9% compared to 20.6%. Adjusting for implant type and gender, there was no difference in cumulative revision rate based on diagnosis (OA versus other) or age group (≤40, 41-45, 46-50, 51-55 years) or between cruciate-retaining and -substituting designs. Eighty five percent of cemented TKA implants survived at 14 years in the population under 55 years of age in this community registry. Cementless designs and UKA increased revision risk independently.Level of Evidence: Level II, therapeutic study. See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

Excellent survival of all-polyethylene tibial components in a community joint registry.

The advantages of the monoblock design and lower cost have prompted renewed interest in the all-polyethylene tibia in total knee arthroplasty. We prospectively followed patients with all-polyethylene tibial total knee arthroplasties over a 14-year period. Since 1991, 443 total knee arthroplasties using an all-polyethylene tibia component were implanted by 12 surgeons in four hospitals associated with a community registry. One of three designs was used in over 98% of cases. The mean age of the patient population was 77 years and 78% were female. Ninety-three patients died with their prosthesis intact. Three revisions were performed on this population with mean followup of 66.3 months (range, 0-158 months). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed 99.4% survival at 14.3 years with revision for any reason as the end point. With aseptic loosening or wear as the revision reason, survival is 99.7% at 14.3 years. Total knee arthroplasty with one of the three contemporary congruent all-polyethylene tibia designs used in this registry performed extremely well in this population; savings for this group (compared to those with a metal-backed component) was estimated at

Registry Outcomes of Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasty Revisions

729 per case. If all patients older than 75 years of age in our registry had received an all-polyethylene tibia, the estimated savings for the implant alone would have been

Implementation and Application of a Community Total Joint Registry: A Twelve-Year History

1.28 million.Level of Evidence: Level II, therapeutic study. See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

Revision Surgery for Patellofemoral Problems: Should We Always Resurface?

Perceptions of the difficulty and outcome of unicompartmental knee arthroplasty revision (rev-UKA) vary. We analyzed differences in the complexity, cost, and survival of rev-UKAs compared with revision TKAs (rev-TKA). One hundred eighty knee arthroplasty revisions (68 rev-UKAs/112 rev-TKAs), defined as a minimum of tibial or femoral component revision, were identified from a community joint registry of 7587 knee implants performed between 1991 and 2005. Four of 68 rev-UKAs (5.9%) were revised a second time, whereas seven of 112 rev-TKAs (6.3%) were rerevised. Rev-TKA was predictably more complex than rev-UKA based on the proxies of operative time, use of modular augmentation and stems, and polyethylene liner thickness. Thirty-nine of 68 rev-UKAs (57%) had no form of augmentation and were revised as primary TKAs. There were more rev-TKAs than rev-UKAs with an implant cost greater than

Developing a personal health record for community-dwelling older adults and clinicians: technology and content.

5200 (42% versus 12%) and hospital charges greater than

Results from the International Consortium of Orthopaedic Registries: An Innovative Distributed Research Network for Global Post-Market Surveillance: Comparative Effectiveness of Ceramic-on-Ceramic Implants in Stemmed Hip Replacement: A Multinational Study of Six National and Regional Registries

33,000 (48% versus 25%). We found no difference in survival between the groups. Although rev-UKAs had less surgical complexity and bone loss at the time of revision compared with rev-TKAs, we were unable to show improved survival of rev-UKAs compared with rev-TKAs. Rev-UKAs were associated with lower implant costs and hospital charges compared with rev-TKAs.Level of Evidence: Level II, prognostic study. See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

Getting on with living life: Experiences of older adults after home care

The Swedish Knee Arthroplasty Register, a prospective national study of total knee arthroplasty that was begun in 1975, and the corresponding Swedish National Hip Register, which was begun in 1979, have had a dramatic impact on joint arthroplasty in that country and have received increasing attention and imitation in recent years1-7. Sharing registry information with surgeons has been an important factor in allowing Sweden to have a rate of revision hip replacement of approximately 8% compared with 18% in the United States4. Such results, as well as the rapid proliferation of arthroplasty options and some notable failures of new technology, have prompted calls for a national joint registry in the United States4. While even the founders of the Swedish registry acknowledge that a prospective, randomized clinical trial is the so-called gold standard for comparing new prosthetic designs8, widespread adoption of such trials seems impractical in the United States for a number of reasons. The general goals of a joint registry (defining the epidemiology of joint replacement surgery, providing timely information about outcomes to the orthopaedic community, and identifying risk factors for poor outcomes) remain unchanged regardless of whether the registry is community-based or implemented at the national level4. We began our community-based total joint registry in 1991, with a database that allowed us to track implant use and failure rates among the forty-four orthopaedic surgeons doing joint arthroplasty in a community health-care system, and with the knowledge that a majority of primary hip arthroplasties in the United States are performed by relatively low-volume surgeons9. Although we were interested in monitoring implant costs, it became immediately apparent that our registry would provide us with valuable information with regard to implant failures in the hands of community surgeons …