Health
Knee replacement consensus
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Jan. 12, 2004
Total knee replacement surgery is a safe and cost-effective procedure for people with persistent knee pain and disability, according to a panel charged with reviewing all of the available evidence on the surgery.
More than 20 years of follow-up data indicate that the procedure is successful in the vast majority of patients, according to the consensus panel assembled by the National Institutes of Health. More than 300,000 total knee replacement surgeries are performed in the United States for severe arthritis of the knee joint.
The 11-member panel presented its statement Dec. 10, 2003, at the close of a three-day consensus development conference on the NIH campus.
The panel also reported that there is clear evidence of racial, ethnic and gender disparities in the provision of total knee replacements and thought that physicians' beliefs about their patients, limited familiarity with knee replacement in minority communities and patient mistrust of the health care system all might play a role.
The NIH Consensus Development Program was established in 1977 as a mechanism to judge controversial topics in medicine and public health in an unbiased and impartial way. The panel's statement is an independent report and is not a policy statement of the NIH or the federal government.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/01/12/hlbf0112.htm.
