Half of all hip and knee arthroplasty patients may be potential day-case candidates: a nationwide register study of...

Area of Science:

• Orthopedic Surgery
• Arthroplasty
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Day-case surgery for hip and knee arthroplasty is increasingly explored.
• The national potential for day-case arthroplasty remains unquantified.
• Assessing trends in day-case eligibility and actual same-day discharges is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To estimate the proportion of hip and knee arthroplasty patients eligible for day-case surgery.
• To analyze changes in day-case eligibility over a decade (2010-2020).
• To determine the rate of same-day discharge among eligible patients.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Danish National Patient Register for primary hip and knee arthroplasty data (2010-2020).
• Applied modified national day-case eligibility criteria to categorize patients.
• Defined day-case procedure as discharge on the same day of surgery.

Main Results:

• Included 166,730 procedures: total hip (THA), total knee (TKA), and unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA).
• 48% of patients were eligible for day-case surgery, showing a decline from 50% in 2010 to 46% in 2019.
• Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty had higher eligibility (55%) than THA (47%) and TKA (49%).
• Same-day discharge among eligible patients peaked at 8.0% in 2019.

Conclusions:

• Approximately 48% of Danish hip and knee arthroplasty patients are potential day-case candidates.
• A slight decrease in day-case eligibility was observed from 2010 to 2019.
• The low rate of same-day discharges suggests substantial untapped potential for expanding day-case arthroplasty services.