Using a validated counting method applied to national hospital discharge data from 1969–2010, this study estimates how many Americans were actually living with a total hip or knee replacement in 2010 — a prevalence figure that had never been rigorously calculated before, as prior work focused only on annual procedure volumes.
When counseling patients on arthroplasty, recognize that roughly 1 in 10 Americans over age 80 has already had a knee replacement — this population is enormous, predominantly female, increasingly younger at time of surgery, and largely without evidence-based guidelines for long-term follow-up, antibiotic prophylaxis, or implant surveillance.
These numbers also mean revision surgery demand will grow substantially, making familiarity with revision indications and workup essential for any orthopedic trainee.
Using a validated counting method applied to national hospital discharge data from 1969–2010, this study estimates how many Americans were actually living with a total hip or knee replacement in 2010 — a prevalence figure that had never been rigorously calculated before, as prior work focused only on annual procedure volumes.
When counseling patients on arthroplasty, recognize that roughly 1 in 10 Americans over age 80 has already had a knee replacement — this population is enormous, predominantly female, increasingly younger at time of surgery, and largely without evidence-based guidelines for long-term follow-up, antibiotic prophylaxis, or implant surveillance.
These numbers also mean revision surgery demand will grow substantially, making familiarity with revision indications and workup essential for any orthopedic trainee.