Arthroplasty News

• Surgeons Not Good at Predicting Benefit From Knee Operations Surgeons are no better at determining which patients might benefit from operations to treat torn knee cartilage than if they just flipped a coin, a new study suggests.
  Reuters Health Information, August 2019
• Tanezumab Reduces Joint Pain, but Possibly at the Cost of Further Joint Damage A new industry study provides more evidence that tanezumab is an effective analgesic for osteoarthritis, but it also confirms an increased risk of rapidly progressive OA and total joint replacement seen in earlier trials.
  Reuters Health Information, July 2019
• Stopping bDMARDs Before RA Hip, Knee Arthroplasty Questioned Postarthroplasty infection risk in those with rheumatoid arthritis was higher after even modest preoperative doses of glucocorticoids. No difference in infection risk was detected among biologic therapies.
  Medscape Medical News, May 2019
• J&J Agrees to Pay About $1 Bln to Resolve Hip Implant Lawsuits - Bloomberg Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay about $1 billion to resolve the bulk of lawsuits claiming the company sold defective metal-on-metal hip implants that ultimately had to be removed, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
  Reuters Health Information, May 2019
• APS 2019'Prehab,' SSRIs May Reduce Postsurgical Opioid Use A strict preoperative rehabilitation protocol (prehab) may reduce opioid use after spinal surgery, while use of antidepressants is linked to reduced opioid use after knee surgery, new studies suggest.
  Medscape Medical News, April 2019
• Elite Hospitals Plunge Into Unproven Stem Cell Treatments Critics are concerned about the explosion in controversial stem cell procedures offered by clinics and, increasingly, respected hospitals.
  Kaiser Health News, April 2019
• Knee Replacement in Younger Patients Has Higher Complication Rate Total knee replacement (TKA) is increasingly being performed in younger patients and new research suggests that these patients have a higher risk for complications than older patients.
  Reuters Health Information, March 2019
• AAOS 2019New Weight-Loss Target for Total Knee Arthroplasty Morbidly obese patients who lose at least 20 pounds before total knee arthroplasty have significantly better outcomes, new research shows, even if they still meet the criteria for morbid obesity.
  Medscape Medical News, March 2019
• Overlapping Surgery for Training Surgical Residents Generally Safe Overlapping surgery is not associated with worse perioperative outcomes compared with nonoverlapping surgery, a large retrospective analysis suggests.
  Reuters Health Information, February 2019
• Majority of Knee, Hip Replacements Last 25 Years According to two recent studies, a majority of knee and hip replacements can be expected to last for 25 years.
  Medscape Medical News, February 2019
• Ibuprofen a 'Reasonable' Option for Early Pain Control After Hip Replacement Combining paracetamol (acetaminophen) with ibuprofen does not cut postoperative use of morphine in a clinically meaningful way relative to ibuprofen alone, in patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty (THA), results of a Danish randomized trial suggest.
  Reuters Health Information, February 2019
• Postop Complications With Sleep Apnea Seen Even After Regional Anesthesia Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) have an increased risk of postoperative complications and prolonged hospital stay, even in a setting with near-universal regional-anesthesia use, according to new findings.
  Reuters Health Information, February 2019
• Questions Linger About Steroid Injections and Knee Arthritis A natural history study of knee osteoarthritis suggests that intra-articular steroids might speed joint deterioration.
  Medscape Medical News, February 2019
• Hospital Prices Rising Much Faster Than Physician Fees A 7-year analysis shows that for inpatient care, hospital prices increased more than twice as fast as physician prices. For hospital-based outpatient care, facility prices grew four times faster.
  Medscape Medical News, February 2019
• J&J, Plaintiffs 'Close' to Deal on Pinnacle Hip Implant Lawsuits: Lawyer Johnson & Johnson's DePuy Orthopaedics unit is in settlement talks to resolve the bulk of individual lawsuits alleging the company's metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implants were defective and caused severe injuries, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said on Monday.
  Reuters Health Information, February 2019
• Two Outcome Trajectories Identified After Knee Replacement An identifiable subgroup of patients who underwent total knee arthroplasty were at increased risk for poor outcomes, a study found.
  Medscape Medical News, January 2019
• Bone, Joint Infections Treatable With Oral Antibiotics The findings from a randomized, multicenter trial challenge an accepted standard of care, the researchers say.
  Medscape Medical News, January 2019
• Medicare Bundled-Payment Model Cuts Joint Replacement Costs A Medicare bundled-payment model for hip and knee replacements showed modest savings at 2 years without increased complication rates.
  Medscape Medical News, January 2019
• Weekly Full-Body Massage Improves Short-term Knee OA Pain Two months of weekly 1-hour Swedish massage significantly improved pain and function in patients with knee osteoarthritis, a randomized trial showed.
  Medscape Medical News, December 2018
• ACR 2018Brisk Walking Delays Knee Replacement in Osteoarthritis Just 5 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous walking can lower the risk for total knee replacement by 16% over 5 years in patients with knee osteoarthritis, researchers report.
  Medscape Medical News, October 2018