AAOS Releases Reports From Clinical Data Contained in AJRR

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) is pleased to release two new reports based on clinical data on hip and knee arthroplasty patient outcomes as part of the American Joint Replacement Registry Program, the largest orthopedic registry in the world based on annual procedures submitted. The new reports, which offer actionable information to guide physicians and patient decision making to improve care, include the 2019 AJRR Annual Report Supplement and the California State Registry Supplement.
 
“The new data coming out of the AAOS are impressive and an exciting extension of the AJRR’s first annual report which debuted in 2019,” said Bryan D. Springer, M.D., FAAOS, chair of the AJRR Steering Committee. “Each report was made possible by the successful integration of administrative claims data into AJRR, which provides a more complete picture of our patient population and their associated comorbidities and outcomes, including longitudinal outcomes of patients who receive care at non-AJRR participating sites.”
 
2019 AJRR Annual Report Supplement
The 2019 AJRR Annual Report Supplement provides demographic information and outcomes from the more than 1.5 million hip and knee arthroplasty procedures performed from 2012 to 2018. This year represents the first time the AJRR has been able to complete device-specific survivorship curves utilizing Medicare claims data. In addition, results offer a more complete picture of patient populations within the procedural reported data. Methodology for analyses detailed reflect a consensus-driven approach determined by multiple stakeholders.
 
“The inclusion of Medicare claims data has given us access to more robust and complete patient information which allows us to investigate timely topics including the role of dual mobility bearings in total hip arthroplasty and cementless fixation in total knee arthroplasty,” said Kevin J. Bozic, M.D., FAAOS, MBA, AJRR Registry Oversight Committee representative. “The level of understanding we are able to gain from these enhanced AJRR data, including clinical, implant related, patient reported outcomes, and now administrative claims, provides unique insights into the factors that influence outcomes for patients who undergo hip or knee replacement surgery.”
 
AJRR represents approximately 32 percent of all hip and knee procedures performed in the United States. However, the representativeness of the AJRR population was previously unknown. To address this uncertainty, the representativeness of the AJRR population was assessed by comparing characteristics of the total joint arthroplasty (TJA) procedures in the AJRR with the National (Nationwide) Inpatient Sample (NIS) database. 
 
The supplemental report also addresses:

• Hip Arthroplasty Constructs – According to the data, the majority of the variation in the hip device-specific survivorship curves appeared to occur within one year of the primary procedure. Early failure is typically a result of infection, dislocation, or periprosthetic fracture, which may or may not be related to the implant itself.
• Knee Arthroplasty Constructs – Unlike the hip device-specific survivorship curves which showed some divergence in the first year, the knee device-curves showed very little divergence for both posterior stabilized and cruciate retaining constructs.

 
California State Registry Supplement
Directed by the California State Registry Committee (CSRC) to monitor the progress and participation of California sites, the new California-specific registry supplement continues the work originally established by the California Joint Replacement Registry (CJRR). This report focuses on the 30 original CJRR sites for which there were 303 unique surgeons with a valid surgeon ID for these analyses. In total, the California State Registry Supplement comprises of 57,246 unique hip and knee cases from 2012 through 2018.
 
To read and download the 2019 AJRR Annual Report Supplement and the California State Registry Supplement, visit the AJRR website.