Revision Surgeries Equal Six Percent

The first report is out from the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR) and it reveals that in 2013 6% of replacement operations were revision surgeries—most of them taking place within three months of the original surgery. Irvin Jackson, writing for About Lawsuits.com, notes that the data in the report covers only about 4.5% of joint replacement surgeries performed in the U.S. in 2013. He writes that “the number is expected to expand as more hospitals begin participating in the program.”

About 120 hospitals submitted data about 44, 000 joint surgeries performed in 2013 along with information about 80, 227 procedures that had been conducted since 2008. Jackson notes that the U.S. registry was launched after a similar but older registry established in the United Kingdom had detected that metal-on-metal implants were failing at rates up to 13%. Unfortunately, “the issues were not discovered until after hundreds of thousands of individuals had the defective implants placed in their body, ” he wrote.

“We are pleased to be publishing our first comprehensive report, ” said AJRR Board of Directors Chairman Dr. William J. Maloney. “The data in this report covers the collection and analysis of data related to hip and knee replacement procedures that have taken place from when we began collecting data up until December 2013.”