Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of Medicare Patients Undergoing Total Hip Arthroplasty, 1991-2008

Abstract

Total hip arthroplasty is a safe and effective therapy for patients with advanced degenerative joint disease.^1,2 In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in performance of this procedure both in the United States and abroad.^3-6 There is a general assumption that increasing experience with total hip arthroplasty has resulted in improvements in patient outcomes, as has been observed in other procedures,^7-9 but rigorous empirical data documenting such improvement are limited.^10-14 This lack of data are striking given that an estimated 280 000 total hip arthroplasty procedures are performed annually at a cost of more than $12 billion.⁵