The National Joint Registry is 10 years old, and reports a big increase in the numbers of operations done, and shows that most patients are very happy with the outcome of surgery.
‘The National Joint Registry for England, Wales and Northern Ireland (NJR) launches its 10th Annual Report today at an event to celebrate its 10th anniversary (2003-2013).
- Nearly 180,000 patients in England and Wales underwent joint replacement surgery in 2012 – patient evidence suggests significant benefits
- 2012 saw hip and knee replacements rise 7% due to baby-boom population bulge
- Since its formation, more than 1.4 million joint replacement operations have been recorded
Highly beneficial joint replacement surgery
For the first time, the report includes analysis of NHS England Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) for hip and knee replacements. PROMs are pre- and post-operative questionnaires (at six months) that ask patients about their experience and perspective of the quality of care and treatment received.
More than 190,000 questionnaires were analysed between April 2009 and December 2012 and revealed that:
- More than 90% hip replacement patients had ‘excellent,’ ‘very good’ or ‘good’ satisfaction following the operation
- More than 85% said their problems were ‘much better’ now compared to before the operation
NJR Chairman and hip replacement patient Laurel Powers-Freeling commented “Only by including the patient’s view of their outcome can we start to build the full picture of success following joint replacement. The analysis in this year’s report is a significant first step towards that and we are confident that PROMs will be a firm feature of our future work.”
The future analysis of PROMs information, along with NJR data, will also include the results of the extended NJR-funded PROMs programme that will look at patient responses at one, three and five years after their joint replacement operation.
These data can be seen as reassuring at a time when the NJR 10th Annual Report shows, for 2012, more than a 7% increase in the number of hip (7.5%) and knee (7.3%) procedures carried out in 2011.
NJR Editorial Board Chair and orthopaedic surgeon Martyn Porter added “The average age for hip and knee replacement has changed little in the past decade but there are factors contributing to the increase in the numbers being done. The large population bulge, as a result of the post-war baby boomers, is having an impact as this generation are moving into the age band where joint replacement surgery is more likely. Additionally, the success of hip and knee replacement surgery over the past three decades has allowed younger-than-average patients to be considered too.”
