Epidemiology of knee and hip arthroplasty: a systematic review

We present a systematic review of epidemiologic studies of Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) and Total Hip Arthroplasty (THA). The studies summarized in this systematic review provide us with estimates of arthroplasty utilization rates, underlying disease frequency and its trends and differences in utilization rates by age, gender and ethnicity among other factors. Among these, many studies are registry-based that assessed utilization rates using data from major orthopedic centers that may provide some understanding of underlying diagnosis and possibly time-trends. Several studies are population-based cross-sectional, which provide estimates of prevalence of TKA and THA. Population-based cohort studies included in this review provide the best estimates of incidence and utilization rates, time-trends and differences in these rates by important patient characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity and others). This article reviews the current published literature in the area and highlights the main findings.