Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the leading cause of disability among US adults and most commonly affects the knee. Guidelines for knee OA treatment include behavioral, nonpharmacological, pharmacological, and surgical interventions. While emerging knee OA treatments show promise for pain control, data gaps remain regarding the efficacy, safety, comparative effectiveness, and real-world value of treatments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOsteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) is a chronic progressive debilitating disease that often affects young and active patients. It results from vascular interruption to the femoral head and can be caused by trauma, chronic corticosteroid use, chronic alcoholism, and coagulopathies. Treatment includes core decompression, a surgical procedure that may help delay or forestall disease progression if performed at the early stages of the disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFValue-based care models are health care economic frameworks that aim to prioritize and financially incentivize quality of care, provider performance, and patient experience. The focus on value-based care metrics will undoubtedly lead to a greater weight placed on economic analyses in arthroplasty. Authors of cost analyses in arthroplasty often use the term "cost" in ways that have vastly different underlying meanings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRelative value units (RVUs) were first introduced by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989 to standardize physician compensation based on the effort, skill, and resources required for medical services. This methodology replaced the "usual, customary, and reasonable" standard, which reduced variability in payments across providers. RVUs are comprised of physician work, practice expenses, and malpractice costs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealth care delivery systems throughout the United States have transitioned to a value-based care model, shifting away from a fee-for-service model to instead emphasize patient health outcomes and the quality of medical care. Social determinants of health (SDOH) have been shown to have a large impact on patient health outcomes and thus, must play an integral role in the implementation of a value-based model. This is of particular interest in the field of lower extremity joint arthroplasty, where demand is rising in conjunction with expanded access to care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The Area Deprivation Index (ADI) is a weighted index comprised of 17 census-based markers of material deprivation and poverty. The purpose of this study was to determine whether patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty (THA) in areas of high ADI (greater disadvantage) were associated with differences in 90 days: 1) medical complications; 2) emergency department (ED) utilizations; and 3) readmissions.
Methods: A nationwide database was queried for primary THA patients from 2010 to 2020.
Recently, robotic-arm assisted total knee arthroplasties have become popular because of their promise to lead to enhanced accuracy and efficient planning of the procedure, as well as improved radiographic and clinical outcomes. One robotic system is based on computed tomography (CT) to help with preoperative planning, intraoperative adjusting, and bone cutting for these procedures. The purpose of this article is to describe the second-generation iteration of this CT-based robotic technique by describing the new features using an actual total knee arthroplasty case.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The prevalence of total shoulder arthroplasties is on the rise annually. Improvements in implant quality, construct stability, and surgical techniques have notably enhanced post-operative results, prompting an expansion of indications for shoulder arthroplasty. Despite its high success rate, opportunities for enhancement remain, especially in preoperative planning and intraoperative execution.
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