The findings were presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ annual meeting in New Orleans.
Researchers compared data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Hospital Discharge Survey for 1990-1994 and 2002-2006 for patients having total knee replacements, according to the release. Around 800,000 procedures were performed in 1990-1994, and 2.1 million in 2002-2006.
They found the average age of patients undergoing total knee replacement decreased from 70 years to 68 years between the two time periods. They also found that the percentage of minority patients undergoing the procedure increased 1.4 percent, from 8 percent in 1990-1994 to 9.4 percent in 2002-2006, according to the release.
According to the study, Medicare is also playing less for total knee replacements, with payment down from 72 percent in 1990-1994 to 61 percent in 2002-2006. Hospital stays also decreased from 8.4 days to 3.9 days.
Researchers noted that this trend could be useful for healthcare providers to plan for the future, which means younger patients as well as more failures and/or revision surgeries, according to the release.
Read the Mayo Clinic’s release on trends in total knee replacement surgery.
