Study says knee replacement surgeries doubled in 20 yrs for older people

The knee replacement surgeries have doubled in 20 years especially for the aging individuals in the U.S, said the researchers. In 2010, the number of knee-replacement surgeries rose to almost 224,000.

While knee surgeries rose by 162%, the surgeries to mend the artificial knee joints surged by 106% during the same time.

The study also notes that the rise in obesity, as well as the current financial practices, could also increase the number of surgeries and costs related to operations in the future.

The study focused on the trends on total knee arthroplasty from 1991 to 2010 in the U.S. Researchers found that the patients were a bit older than 70 years of age. 

In the year 1991, there were approximately 3 procedures for every 10,000 Medicare beneficiaries. In 2010, that increased to 5 procedures for every 10,000 Medicare patients.

The researchers also found that the average amount of time in the hospital due to knee surgeries dipped from around 8 days to 3.5 days. Meanwhile, recently the rate for the knee replacement surgery has slowed a bit.

Scientists think that the decrease is due to young adults who aim to have artificial knees instead of knee replacement. Also, the financial costs of knee surgeries were also reported in the study.

The researchers also reported that $9 billion had accrued from the 600,000 knee surgeries completed in a year.