Abstract
Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) is one of the most commonly performed surgeries worldwide since it can improve pain, quality of life, and functional outcome. Due to the expansion of hospitals specialized in joint surgery, the topography of TKA implementation in Korea is changing. This study analyzed longitudinal trends of TKA based on changes in age distribution, sex, hospital, and region based on the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) of Korea database. Data were collected from the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS), and the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) in Korea for the period 2011–2018. Results show the total number of surgeries increased and the number of patients by age decreased in those under the age of 70, while the number of patients over 70 years of age increased. A remarkable increase in women was found, and there was no significant difference between regions. TKA is spreading in a more universal and easily accessible form in Korea and has increased more in other relatively small medical institutions compared to tertiary referral medical centers. Due to the increase of orthopedics’ specialized hospitals and clinics, TKA is becoming more prominent in those hospitals.
Highlights
The prevalence of knee osteoarthritis has been increasing in recent years [1,2,3]
Kurtz et al predicted that the annual number of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) implementation in the U.S will increase from 1.37 million in 2020 to 3.48 million in 2030 [8]
The trends of TKA use are correlated with prevalence of knee osteoarthritis, and is mainly influenced by changes in demographic factors such as age, gender, life expectancy [1,2,5,9]
Summary
The prevalence of knee osteoarthritis has been increasing in recent years [1,2,3]. Among the treatment of end stage osteoarthritis, total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is one of the most effective treatments and it is one of the most commonly performed surgeries worldwide since it can improve pain, quality of life, and functional outcome [4,5].As population aging is progressing in the West, and in East Asia, total volume of primary knee arthroplasty has increased steadily over the past few decades [5,6,7].Kurtz et al predicted that the annual number of TKA implementation in the U.S will increase from 1.37 million in 2020 to 3.48 million in 2030 [8]. The prevalence of knee osteoarthritis has been increasing in recent years [1,2,3]. Among the treatment of end stage osteoarthritis, total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is one of the most effective treatments and it is one of the most commonly performed surgeries worldwide since it can improve pain, quality of life, and functional outcome [4,5]. As population aging is progressing in the West, and in East Asia, total volume of primary knee arthroplasty has increased steadily over the past few decades [5,6,7]. Since predicted volume of overall medical cost for TKA surgery and its management will increase over the several decades, an accurate analysis of TKA epidemiology is required for better public health care policy [10]
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