Risk Factors for Readmissions After Total Joint Replacement: A Meta-Analysis

We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of predictive modeling studies examining the risk of readmission after total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in order to synthesize key risk factors and evaluate their pooled effects. Our analysis entailed 15 compliant studies for qualitative review and 17 compliant studies for quantitative meta-analysis.

A qualitative review of 15 predictive modeling studies highlighted 5 key risk factors for risk of readmission after THA and/or TKA: age, length of stay, readmission reduction policy, use of peripheral nerve block, and type of joint replacement procedure.

A meta-analysis of 17 studies unveiled 3 significant risk factors: discharge to a skilled nursing facility rather than to home (approximately 61% higher risk), surgery at a low- or medium-procedure-volume hospital (approximately 26% higher risk), and the presence of patient obesity (approximately 34% higher risk). We demonstrated clinically meaningful relationships between these factors and moderator variables of procedure type, source of data used for model-building, and the proportion of male patients in the cohort.

We found that many studies did not adhere to gold-standard criteria for reporting and study construction based on the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) and NOS (Newcastle-Ottawa Scale) methodologies.

We recommend that these risk factors be considered in clinical practice and future work alike as they relate to surgical, discharge, and care decision-making. Future work should also prioritize greater observance of gold-standard reporting criteria for predictive models.