Abstract
IntroductionWith the continued and effective transfer of orthopaedic knowledge and skills across continents, the incidence of hip and knee replacement surgery has increased in the developing world. More patients are having these procedures done locally rather than having to travel over to the more developed western countries at great financial costs for those who cannot really afford it. We report the data collected by an orthopaedic charity MOTEC LIFE UK which has been offering hip and knee arthroplasty procedures to patients who require them. The time period of the procedures was February 2013–October 2017.MethodsThe data was collated prospectively and this included age, sex, indication for procedure, and side of procedure (including if bilateral). The information on hip implants used were also collected—implant type (cemented or uncemented), type of bearing surface, size of acetabular cup, liner, femoral head size, and stem size and including if screws were used to augment the fixation of the femoral cup. For the knee implants used, information on the type of implant (semi-constrained, cruciate retaining, or Stanmore hinge knee prosthesis), femoral and tibia stem size, insert type (fixed bearing or mobile bearing), and size; patella button size (whether patella replacement or circumcision) were collected. The surgical approach used in both knee and hip arthroplasty cases was noted.ResultsIt is seen from the data collected that a total of 113 hip arthroplasty procedures from 109 patients were carried out and for total knee replacements, 82 knee arthroplasty procedures from 76 patients were carried out. The above procedures were carried out in two separate hospitals. Degenerative osteoarthritis still remains the main indication for hip and knee arthroplasty surgery in our study and this is similar to other joint registries around the world. It was noted that the incidence of avascular necrosis as an indication hip surgery was higher than that seen in registries for developed countries. The mean age for the hip and knee replacement patient in our data was much lower than that what is obtained in the developed world. Furthermore, it was observed that there was increased use of semi-constrained knee prosthesis due to the severe osteoarthritic deformities noted in the patients seen when compared to rate of use of similar implants in the developed world.ConclusionThis observational study could serve as a springboard for establishment of arthroplasty registries for countries in the sub-region as a whole.
Highlights
With the continued and effective transfer of orthopaedic knowledge and skills across continents, the incidence of hip and knee replacement surgery has increased in the developing world
Much has been written about the problems which parts of the developing world face when dealing with the epidemics of infectious diseases, malaria, tuberculosis, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) [5]; little is still known of the burden of osteoarthritis (OA) in the developing world
The following data was prospectively collated from all patients undergoing hip and knee replacements: age, gender, surgical indication/diagnosis, surgeon’s grade, hospital where surgery was performed, type of anaesthesia used, ASA grade (American Society of Anesthesiologists—grades 1 to 5), body mass index (BMI), type of implant for hip cases and for total knee replacement (TKR) cases, and the surgical approach
Summary
With the continued and effective transfer of orthopaedic knowledge and skills across continents, the incidence of hip and knee replacement surgery has increased in the developing world. International Orthopaedics (SICOT) (2019) 43:1041–1047 written about joint arthroplasty in developed communities; there is still quite a paucity of knowledge about joint replacement surgery in sub-Saharan Africa. It is important to note that established literature is not lacking evidence of joint registries in the developed world [7,8,9], but there is little or no evidence of published arthroplasty registries for developing countries despite the increasing incidence of hip and knee replacements in these countries. With all of the above literature deficiencies noted, this article is an observational study which seeks to highlight hip and knee arthroplasty work of an orthopaedic charity in a developing country over a period of four years where details on prostheses used were collected including primary and revision cases with the data analysed. Some trends in demographics, disease pattern, and pathology could be brought to the fore through this
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
