American Joint Replacement Registry Publishes 10th Annual Report

The report provides a snapshot of the current state of hip and knee arthroplasty practices in the United States

ROSEMONT, Ill., Nov. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — The American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR), the cornerstone of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) Registry Program, has released its 2023 Annual Report on Procedural Trends in Hip and Knee Arthroplasties and patient outcomes today. Marking the 10^e anniversary edition of the report, the data represents more than 3.1 million primary and revision hip and knee arthroplasty procedures performed between 2012 and 2022. This is a 23% growth in procedural cases compared to the previous report.

Click here to view the full AJRR annual report.

“This year’s AJRR Annual Report provides a look at the past decade of data through 2022 and provides clinical insights, national trends, and risk-stratified outcome analyzes related to Medicare patients undergoing hip and knee arthroplasty procedures,” said James I. Huddleston, III, MD, FAAOS, AJRR Steering Committee Chairman. “This linkage provides a more complete picture of our patient population and associated comorbidities and outcomes, including longitudinal outcomes of patients receiving care at non-AJRR participating sites. The information in this year’s annual report provides the most comprehensive picture yet of practice patterns and outcomes of hip and knee arthroplasty in the US.”

Harnessing the power of registry data to improve patient care
By collecting and reporting U.S. hip and knee arthroplasty data, the report aims to provide valuable information to orthopedic surgeons, hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs), private practices, device manufacturers, payers and, most importantly, patients. The analytics can help physicians change practice and improve patient outcomes.

The AJRR is the largest orthopedic registry based on annual number of procedures. Some notable findings in the 2023 Annual Report include:

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are increasingly used to evaluate the success of a hip or knee arthroplasty procedure. Through continued support of the RegistryInsights® PROM platform and partnerships with third-party vendors, AJRR has experienced substantial growth in PROM capture. By the end of 2022, 496 participating sites had submitted PROMs, which is a 24% increase from the previous year. Collection of PROMs data via de KOOS, JR. The score showed that 86% of patients achieved meaningful improvement after total knee arthroplasty (TKA).
Ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) continue to play an increasingly important role in the delivery of total joint arthroplasty care in the U.S. There are now 42,228 procedural cases reported by ASCs, an increase of 84% since 2022.
Hospital discharges to home versus a skilled nursing facility are trending upward – Approximately 93% of patients are now discharged home after elective primary total hip arthroplasty (THA), with many fewer patients (8%) being discharged to skilled nursing facilities compared to just a few years ago. The percentage of patients discharged to skilled nursing after primary TKA also continues to decline and now represents less than 6% of all discharges. These data demonstrate surgeons’ continued commitment to safely returning patients to their home environments, as well as their interest in preoperative patient optimization and care coordination.
The use of technology to assist in elective primary total hip arthroplasty has increased significantly – Over the past six years, the use of robotics in TKA has increased more than sixfold and is now reported in over 13% of procedures, while the use of computer navigation has remained relatively stable. According to Dr. Huddleston, the continued collection and analysis of robotic data will ultimately allow surgeons to assess the value proposition of these technologies.
New analyzes offer new perspectives on patient outcomes – Additional analyzes included for the first time in the 2023 AJRR Annual Report, including comparisons of hip and knee survival rates between pre- and post-COVID-19 emergency declarations, revision outcomes after revision THA between dual mobility and standard designs, and survival rates among fracture patients treated with THA versus hemiarthroplasty. These new analyzes provide critical insights into the impact of COVID-19 on patients and shed light on the performance of new technologies and treatment paradigms.
Peer-reviewed publications and presentations based on registry data remain an important focus of AJRR.

“The publication of the 10^e edition of the AJRR Annual Report further affirms the commitment of healthcare organizations, physicians and patients to improve the quality of musculoskeletal care,” said James A. Browne, MD, FAAOS, chairman of the AJRR Publications Subcommittee and editor of the AJRR -annual report. “The ever-increasing submission and compilation of data is driving new insights and fueling our desire to improve the value of care for our patients.”

For slides with numbers and data tables shown in the report, please email media@aaos.org.

AAOS Registry Program
The mission of the AAOS Registry Program is to improve orthopedic care by collecting, analyzing and reporting actionable data. The American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR), the Academy’s hip and knee replacement registry, is the cornerstone of the AAOS Registry Program and the world’s largest national registry of hip and knee joint replacement data based on annual procedural counts, with more than 3 million procedures included in its database. Additional registries include the Fracture & Trauma Registry (FTR), the Musculoskeletal Tumor Registry (MsTR), the Shoulder & Elbow Registry (SER), and the American Spine Registry (ASR), a partnership between the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS ) and the AAOS.

About the AAOS
With more than 39,000 members, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons is the world’s largest medical association of musculoskeletal specialists. The AAOS is the trusted leader in promoting musculoskeletal health. It provides the highest quality and most comprehensive training to help orthopedic surgeons and paramedics at all career levels best treat patients in their daily practice. The AAOS is the source for information about bone and joint disorders, treatments and related issues in musculoskeletal health care; and it guides the healthcare discussion on promoting quality.

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SOURCE American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons