Which patients are more likely to be readmitted to the hospital following hip replacement surgery? A study reported on by Irvin Jackson—a writer for About Lawsuits.com—and published in the journal AMA Surgery found that hip complications more frequently occur among older patients and those who are dealing with other health problems.
New Algorithm Predicts Hip Joint Revisions
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The study principals examined data on 268, 518 patients from New York and California from 2006 through 2011. According to Jackson, they found that patients who were over the age of 74, African Americans, and patients suffering from congestive heart failure, liver disease, pulmonary disease, kidney failure, diabetes and other health problems were more likely to require revision surgery.
The researchers devised a scale to calculate the impact of these factors and found that the scale was able to predict the high-risk patients a majority of the time. They found that nearly 6% of patients who received a hip implant were readmitted within 30 days due to problems. Jackson noted that “complications from hip implants often include mechanical failures, poisoning from metallic debris from metal-on-metal implants, and surgical site infections.”
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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