Total Knee Replacements Highly Successful in First 3 Years

A British Study looked in the National Registry to determine revision surgery rates of 80,697 primary Total Knee Replacements between 2003 and 2006. This was an observational study and a revision for any reason (infection, loosening, instability, fracture) was the defined end point of the study. Observational studies have many limitations, but the numbers in this study still have some validity and some interest.

The overall primary knee replacement revision rate was 1.4% for cemented total prosthesis, 1.5 % for cement less total prosthesis, and 2.8% for uni compartmental prosthesis at three years. Patients younger than 55 years at the time of the primary TKR had the highest revision rate and those older than 75 years at the time of primary TKR had the lowest rates. Overall, this reports shows that revision rates in the first 3 years after knee replacements carried out in the NHS in England since April 2003 were low.