Low percentage of surgeons meet the minimum recommended unicompartmental knee arthroplasty usage thresholds: Analysis of 3037 Surgeons from Three National Joint Registries

Purpose The reported usage of UKA is around 10% in the UK, Australian and New Zealand joint registries. However, some authors recommend that a higher UKA usage of 20%, or a minimum 12 UKA cases per year, would reduce revision rates. The purpose of this study was to analyze the percentage of surgeons performing the recommended thresholds in these 3 registries. Methods Data from the UK, Australian and New Zealand registry databases was utilized from the time period since their respective introduction until 2017. All primary TKA and UKA performed for the diagnosis of osteoarthritis by surgeons with more than 100 recorded knee arthroplasties in their respective registry were included. The results between the registries were compared and a pooled analysis was performed. The number of surgeons meeting the recommended caseload of > 20% UKA yearly or 12 UKA cases yearly was calculated. Results We identified 3037 knee surgeons performing 1,556,440 knee arthroplasties, of which 131,575 were UKA (8.45%). Over 50% of knee surgeons in each registry had a proportion of less than 5% UKA of their knee replacement procedures. After pooling of data, median surgeon UKA usage was 2.0% (IQR 0-9.1%). The percentage of surgeons meeting the proposed caseload criteria was highest in New Zealand, 16.3%, followed by the UK at 12.4% and Australia 11.3% (p = 0.28). Conclusion More than 50% of knee surgeons in UK, Australian and New Zealand joint registries perform less than 5% of UKA yearly. The majority of experienced knee surgeons are not meeting the recommended minimum thresholds, which might indicate that the recommended thresholds are not feasible for the vast majority of knee surgeons. The reasons behind this require further research.

Automated summary

The study found that over 50% of knee surgeons in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand perform less than 5% of UKA procedures yearly. Additionally, the majority of experienced knee surgeons are not meeting the recommended minimum thresholds, suggesting that these thresholds may not be feasible for most knee surgeons. Further research is needed to understand the reasons behind this.