Researchers find differences between hip and knee replacement surgeries in USA and Germany

Researchers used individual inpatient data from Germany and the USA to investigate changes over time and differences between 2005 and 2011. In 2011, 284 hip replacements were performed per 100 000 population in Germany, while 204 were performed per 100 000 population in the USA.

This means they were 1.4 times more frequent in Germany. In contrast, knee replacements were performed 1.5 times more frequently in the USA (304 surgeries per 100 000 population) than in Germany (206 surgeries per 100 000 population). However, numbers increased over the observation period in both countries.

In Germany the number of primary replacements rose by 11%, from 170 to 190 per 100 000 population. In the USA the increase was as large as 28%, but because the baseline level was only 79 per 100 000 population the new figure of 96 primary replacements per 100 000 population remains well below the German level.

Part of the increase in Germany can be explained by changes in population age structure.

There are considerable differences between surgery frequencies in Germany and the USA. In order to rank the obtained results even better, further comparisons are needed with other industrialized countries on the basis of individual patient data, to the extent that these are available.