Variability in Physician Opinions About the Indications for Knee Arthroplasty
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
We surveyed a random sample of 201 orthopedic surgeons, all 141 practicing rheumatologists, and a random sample of 455 family physicians in Ontario. The sample was based on the Registry of the College of Physicians of Ontario. Nonresponders received up to 3 mailings and a subsequent telephone call. Physicians were eligible for the survey if they were in active practice and had seen patients with lower extremity arthritis in the previous year. A random subsample of 186 physicians completed the
Orthopedic Surgeons
Of the 201 surveyed surgeons, 135 (67%) responded, of whom 109 (80.7%) reported seeing patients with knee osteoarthritis. For the 109 respondents, the mean age was 46 years (range, 31-75 years), mean years in practice was 15 years (range, 1-42 years), 98 (90%) were male, 37 (34%) had a joint arthroplasty fellowship, and 36 (46%) of 79 who responded to the question indicated a university affiliation. Of the 34 characteristics (Table 1), more than 90% of surgeons agreed on only 4 characteristics
Discussion
Total knee arthroplasty results in substantial and sustained improvement in quality of life 2, 23. The utilization of knee arthroplasty has risen exponentially in both Canada [24] and the United States [25]. A survey in 1994 of referring physicians and orthopedic surgeons in Ontario [4] identified variability in how individual patient characteristics affected their decision to refer for or perform total knee arthroplasty. The results of this study demonstrated that physicians' opinions about
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Supplementary material available at www.arthroplastyjournal.org.
These benefits or support were received from Canadian Institute for Health Research.