Old Implants Have Edge On New (Biloine Young @ OTW)
It is back to the drawing board for new hip and knee prosthesis.
Reason? A five-year Australian study has found that the newer hip and knee replacement joints are performing no better—and sometimes worse—than the older, less expensive devices. The study concluded that 30 % of the new joints were performing worse than were the older versions.
The researchers obtained their data from a comprehensive Australian national registry database and performed an outcome analysis on all new hip and knee prostheses introduced into the market between January 1, 2003, and December 31, 2007. The prosthesis had to have been used on at least 100 occasions.
They then compared their findings with the combined results of the three best performing established hip and knee prostheses with a minimum duration of five years of follow-up. The principal outcome measures were the rate of revision per observed component years and the time to first revision, using the Kaplan-Meier estimate of implant survivorship.
Most of the prostheses introduced into the market during the study period were used on fewer than 100 occasions. An analysis of those that...
