Knee replacement 'cost-effective for osteoarthritis patients'
Total knee replacement surgery is a cost-effective solution for people with osteoarthritis, new research has shown.
The procedure is offered to patients whose knees have been severely damaged by the disease, which occurs when the cartilage lining the thigh bone and the shin bone weakens and becomes thinner.
The two bones grow spurs and begin to rub against each other, causing pain, swelling and inflammation.
Now researchers, led by Dr Elena Losina from the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Boston University School of Public Health, have found that total knee replacement is cost-effective in people whose knees have been badly damaged.
They looked at lifetime costs of treatment for knee osteoarthritis and the effects of surgery on the patients' quality of life and found that the procedure improved life expectancy and quality of life.
"Clinicians, patients and policy makers should consider the relative cost-effectiveness of total knee arthroplasty in making decisions about who should undergo total knee arthroplasty, where and when," Dr Losina and colleagues concluded in the medical journal Archives of Internal Medicine.
More than 60,000 knee replacement operations are carried out in England and Wales each year, with the majority of patients undergoing the procedure being over the age of 65.
A spokeswoman for the Arthritis Research Campaign commented that joint replacement surgery had been one of the major successes of the past 20 or 30 years in treating severe arthritis.
The charity already funds £2 million worth of orthopaedic research looking at refining and developing the next generation of surgical therapies, and has recently set up an exciting new orthopaedic clinical research fellowship scheme to encourage young surgeons to get more involved in research. 
© Adfero Ltd
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