Information for Medical Professionals

Specialised orthopaedic hospitals 'have better outcomes'

Hospitals which specialise in orthopaedic surgery, such as total hip and total knee replacements, benefit from better outcomes than their non-specialised counterparts, it has been claimed.

According to the new research, which was published in the British Medical Journal, there were fewer post-operative complications at – such as blood clots, infections, heart problems and death – among patients visiting specialised hip and knee replacement centres.

The researchers behind the paper looked at 1.3 million patient records between 2001 and 2005.

All of those included in the study were aged 65-years and over.

"The findings suggest that more specialized hospitals have better outcomes even after we account for the type of patients each hospital cares for and the number of hip and knee replacement surgeries that each hospital performs," Tyson Hagen, the lead author of the study, said.

Recently, research published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, showed that discrepancies in intra-observer assessment of displacement in medial epicondyle fractures of the humerus was commonplace and could impact on a patient's outcome.

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