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Knees Replaced in Record Numbers
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Medpagetoday.com REPORTS HERE that "during the past three decades there has been a dramatic, 130-fold increase in knee replacement surgeries, particularly among individuals in their 50s, a Finnish study found."

"The incidence of total knee arthroplasty rose from 0.5 per 100,000 in 1980 to 65 per 100,000 in 2006 …. And among those ages 50 to 59, the incidence increased from 1.5 to 160 per 100,000, with an IRR of 16.8 …."

"Knee arthroplasty is a common and effective treatment for patients with severe osteoarthritis who are not responsive to medical therapy. In the U.S., demand for the procedure is expected to increase by almost 675% by the year 2030."

"Most long-term data are for patients who were 60 and older at the time of the surgery, but younger patients increasingly have been undergoing total or partial knee replacements."

"To explore trends in incidence over time among younger patients[researchers] analyzed data from the national Finnish arthroplasty register, which now includes 98% of patients with these implants. Among the 95,577 primary knee arthroplasties done in the country between 1980 and 2006, 8,961 were for osteoarthritis in individuals younger than 60. A total of 65% of these were in women, and mean age at implantation was 55."

"Throughout the study period, women were the recipients more often than men, reaching a 1.6 to 2.4-fold higher incidence during the last ten years."

"...as data on this issue emerge, it appears that rates of failure leading to revision in younger patients are two-fold higher than in older patients."

The report "… called for further "intensive study" before even wider adoption of knee arthroplasty for younger patients."





 
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