Surgeons Unable to Meet Demand for Joint Replacement in the US

American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting, in Las Vegas threw up some startling relevations regarding Joint Replacements .According to a report published in the meet, In 2016, nearly 200,000 patients who require hip replacement and 750,000 patients who require knee replacement will not be able to have their surgery performed, because of the shortages of orthopedic surgeons available to do the procedure," according to Dr. Thomas K. Fehring, lead researcher of the first study and an orthopedic surgeon with OrthoCarolina in Charlotte, N.C.

While Hip Replacement and Knee Replacement in the US is something that is commonplace and done quite frequently, some healthcare experts say that this might change very soon due to the mismatch between demand and supply

For the study, the retirement age of doctors performing hip and knee replacements and the number of new doctors entering the field were calculated. Using this data, the researchers calculated the number of doctors who will be available to perform these procedures in 2016.

the study shows that by 2016, there will be significantly fewer doctors available to replace those who retire. By 2016, 46 percent of patients needing hip replacements will not get them, and 72 percent of those needing knee replacements will have to wait.

"I understood that there were not as many young surgeons going into the arthroplasty field as were retiring from the arthroplasty field, but it shocked me that, if the trends continue, nearly a million patients who need hip and knee replacements in 2016 will not have access to this life-changing procedure," said Dr. Thomas K. Fehring, lead researcher of the first study and an orthopedic surgeon with OrthoCarolina in Charlotte, N.C.

One of the reasons for lesser orthopedic doctors from joining this specialty appears to be low insurance reimbursements.Reimbursement for joint replacement has decreased 60 percent in inflation adjusted dollars since 1990.

"These economic realities are not lost on our residents in training when selecting a career," Fehring said. "Unless things change, this will lead to excessive waiting times for our senior citizens requiring joint replacement. Wait times of one to two years may ensue, which will be unacceptable to the general public," he said.

by 2011, more than 50 percent of patients needing hip replacement will be under 65, and that by 2016, more than half of those needing knee replacement will be also be under 65.

According to the study,many patients needing knee replacement are between 45 and 54. In 2006, 59,077 people in this age group had knee replacements, but by 2030, that number will increase 17 times to almost 1 million, Kurtz's team found.

This trend is driven by the success of these procedures as well as by people being more active and also obesity, which can trigger arthritis at an earlier age, In addition, as the population ages, there will be a need for joint replacement in many more older people, according to the study.

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