The relationship between total hip arthroplasty (THA) surgeon volume and outcomes is informative in this era of health care value optimisation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate outcomes based on modern-day surgeon practice volumes.
Methods:
The SPARCS database was queried for patients undergoing primary THA from 2010 to 2020. Annual case volume thresholds were 30 and 150, differentiating high-volume (HV), intermediate-volume (IV), and low-volume (LV) groups. Perioperative outcomes and all-cause cumulative revision rates were evaluated.
Results:
There were 88,411, 142,201, and 53,276 in the HV, IV, and LV groups, respectively. HV surgeons had significantly lower 3-month prosthetic joint infection (PJI) rates (0.5 vs. 0.8 vs. 1.0%, p< 0.001). While controlling for confounders, multivariate regression revealed increased odds of PJI for IV (1.5) and LV (1.87) and increased all-cause revision hazard ratio for IV (1.1) and LV (1.3). Cumulative revision rates were lower for HV at 1 and 2 years, but rates converged with IV group at 9 years.
Conclusions:
HV surgeons have the most favourable short-term outcomes. However, in the long-term the difference in all-cause revision event rates becomes less apparent.
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