The Norwegian Arthroplasty Register Research group
Registry data from all over Norway on joint replacements, hip fractures and cruciate ligament injuries.
Hovedinnhold
The Norwegian Arthroplasty Register started registration of total hip replacements in 1987. In 1994, registration was extended to include insertion of all types of artificial joints. The main reason for establishing a nation-wide register was that throughout the 1970ies, new hip implants had been introduced without documentation from clinical studies. After being used for more than 10 years, several of the prostheses were identified with high failure rates, but had at the time already been used on large numbers of patients. The main purpose of the register is to function as a surveillance tool to identify inferior implants as early as possible.
The orthopaedic surgeons provide information on all primary joint replacements, including an accurate description of the different parts of the implant. If the prosthesis is later revised (the implant is removed or exchanged), the register receives a new report with information about the reason for and the type of revision. Information regarding the two procedures is linked using the personal identification number assigned to all inhabitants of Norway. The quality of an implant can then be evaluated based on the time periods from implantation to revision.
Throughout the registration period 1987 to 2005, information has been registered on about 114.400 hip replacements, 25.000 knee replacements and more than 7.300 prostheses in other joints than hip and knee. With 4.56 million inhabitants in 2003, the overall incidence per 100,000 persons was 152 primary total hip replacements and 67 primary knee replacements.
