8 out of 10 total knee replacements and 6 out of 10 total hip replacements are still in place after 25 years.
Thanks to a new British study published in The Lancet, we now know how long hip and knee prostheses last. Surgical success rates are good: 8 out of 10 total knee replacements and 6 out of 10 total hip replacements are still in place after 25 years. They are also surprising, since the knee prosthesis has a worse reputation than the hip prosthesis.
15, 20 or 25 years old
“Patients often ask clinicians how long their new hip or new knee will last, and until now we didn’t have the answer,” says Dr Jonathan Evans, study director (Southmead Hospital ). “Previous research was based on much smaller samples,” he says.
Of the 215,676 hip replacement surgeries studied, 89% lasted 15 years, 70% lasted 20 years, and 58% lasted 25 years. Regarding knee prostheses, 96% of total knee arthroplasties and 77% of unicondylar (partial, Ed) knee arthroplasties lasted 15 years.
Helping patients decide if it’s the right time
“As a clinician, these new data will allow me to help patients decide if it’s the right time for them to have a joint replaced,” says Michael Whitehouse, expert in trauma and orthopedics.
Hip and knee replacements are the two most common and effective forms of surgery. But even when everything is going well, the prostheses end up being removed because of infection, fracture or simply wear and tear, for example.
Spectacular new everyday comfort
150,000 hip prostheses and more than 80,000 artificial knees are implanted each year in France, due to pathologies such as osteoarthritis, femoral neck fracture or hip necrosis. Due to the aging of the population, these figures are constantly increasing.
These surgical procedures generally provide the patient with spectacular new comfort on a daily basis, and are currently recommended after 60 or 65 years of age, to prevent a younger person from having to undergo another operation (the second operation is often more delicate than the first). However, there is no age limit if the state of health is good.
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