Search

Mathew Nicholls,1 Faizan Niazi,2 Winnie W Nelson,2 Edmund Lau,3 Steven M Kurtz,4 Kevin L Ong4 1Virginia Mason Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA; 2Ferring Pharmaceuticals Inc, Parsippany, NJ, USA; 3Exponent, Inc, Menlo Park, CA, USA; 4Exponent, Inc, Philadelphia, PA, USACorrespondence: Kevin L Ong, Exponent, Inc, Philadelphia, PA, USA, Tel +1 215 594-8800, Email kong@exponent.comBackground: Limiting access to intra-articular knee injections, including hyaluronic acid (HA), has been advocated as a cost-containment measure in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. The association between presurgical injections and post-surgical complications such as early periprosthetic joint infection and revision remained to be investigated. This study evaluated pre- and post-surgical costs and rates of post-surgical complications in knee arthroplasty (KA) patients with or without prior HA use.Methods: Commercial and Medicare Supplemental Claims Data (IBM MarketScan Research Databases) from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2018 were used to identify unilateral KA patients. Those who completed a course of bio-fermentation derived HA (Bio-HA) as the first-line HA therapy comprised of the test group (n = 4091), while the control group did not use HA prior to KA (n = 118,659). Using multivariable regression with propensity score (PS) weighting, overall healthcare costs, readmission rates, and revision rates were assessed at six months following KA.Results: Healthcare costs following KA were significantly lower for the Bio-HA group ($10,021 ± $22,796) than No HA group ($12,724 ± $32,966; PS p < 0.001). Bio-HA patients had lower readmission rates (8.9% vs 14.0%; PS p < 0.001) and inpatient costs per readmitted patient ($43,846 ± $50,648 vs $50,533 ± $66,150; PS p = 0.005). There were no differences in revision rate for any reason (Bio-HA: 0.78% vs No HA: 0.67%; PS p = 0.361) and with PJI (Bio-HA: 0.42% vs No HA: 0.33%; PS p = 0.192). Costs in the six months up to and including the KA were similar for both groups (Bio-HA: $49,759 ± $40,363 vs No HA: $50,532 ± $43,183; PS p = 0.293).Conclusion: Bio-HA use prior to knee arthroplasty did not appear to increase overall healthcare costs in the six months before and after surgery. Allowing access to HA injections provides a non-surgical therapeutic option without increasing cost or risk of post-surgical complications.Keywords: bio-fermentation derived hyaluronic acid, healthcare costs, intra-articular hyaluronic acid, knee arthroplasty, readmissions

Kevin L Ong,1 Andréa Coppolecchia,2 Zhongming Chen,3 Heather N Watson,4 David Jacofsky,5 Michael A Mont3 1Exponent Inc, Philadelphia, PA, USA; 2Stryker Orthopaedics, Mahwah, NJ, USA; 3Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, USA; 4Exponent Inc, Menlo Park, CA, USA; 5The CORE Institute, Phoenix, AZ, USACorrespondence: Kevin L Ong, Exponent, Inc, 3440 Market Street, Suite 600, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA, Tel +1 215-594-8800, Fax +1 215-594-8899, Email kong@exponent.comPurpose: Robotic-arm assisted total knee arthroplasty (RATKA) has the potential to enhance radiographic, clinical, and patient-reported outcomes. The purpose of this study was to compare resource utilization, episode-of-care (EOC) costs, readmissions, and complications of robotic-arm assisted total knee arthroplasty (RATKA) and manual TKA (MTKA).Methods: TKA procedures were identified from a private payer claims database. RATKA procedures required both a robotic arm-assisted procedure code and a 60-day pre-operative computed tomography scan. Propensity score matching (1:5 RATKA to MTKA) was performed, based on various patient characteristics and comorbidities. After matching, 4452 patients (742 RATKA and 3710 MTKA) were analyzed for 90-day and one-year EOC costs, index TKA costs, lengths of stay (LOS), discharge statuses, rehabilitation utilizations, as well as 90-day and one-year readmissions- and knee-related complications.Results: RATKA patients had shorter LOS (mean 1.56 versus 1.91 days; p < 0.001), lower index costs by $1762 ($32,747 versus $34,509; p = 0.003), and higher discharges to home rates (51.8 versus 47.8%; p = 0.049) than MTKA patients. RATKA patients had less 90-day (68.5 versus 72.0%; p = 0.048) and one-year (70.8 versus 75.0%; p = 0.016) home health utilizations. The RATKA cohort had lower 90-day ($39,260 versus $41,458; p = 0.001) and one-year ($51,462 versus $54,171; p = 0.011) EOC costs. No significant differences in readmission and overall complication rates were observed (p > 0.05).Conclusion: RATKA was associated with lower index costs and EOC costs at both 90 days and one year. These patients had shorter LOS, were discharged home more frequently, and used less home health services. Cost savings were demonstrated for RATKA beyond the 90-day period with an increase in savings between 90-day and one-year time points. These data may be of importance to payers and providers interested in the longer-term value of RATKA.Keywords: robotic-arm assisted total knee arthroplasty, cost savings, complications, length of stay

Gouty arthritis commonly affects peripheral joints and is associated with hyperuricaemia. Spinal manifestations of gouty arthritis are not common, and majority of published articles worldwide were case reports. This is a case report of spinal gouty arthritis that presented with spinal vertebrae destruction and cauda equina syndrome. The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed destruction of L5/S1end plates with cystic collection mimicking infective changes. The tissue histological examination confirmed presence of urate crystal needles that displayed negative double refraction on light microscopy. Spinal gouty arthritis is part of the differential diagnoses in gouty arthritis patients.

Kevin L Ong,1 Maria Runa,1 Edmund Lau,2 Roy D Altman3 1Biomedical Engineering, Exponent, Inc, Philadelphia, PA, USA; 2Health Sciences, Exponent, Inc, Menlo Park, CA, USA; 3School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA Purpose: Although knee arthroplasty (KA) is the largest source of hospitalization costs for knee osteoarthritis (OA), some studies have suggested reducing the use of “low-value” interventions, such as intra-articular hyaluronic acid (HA), to lower health care costs. However, those studies fail to consider that HA has demonstrated benefits in extending time to more costly KA or avoiding KA altogether. We evaluated 1) the overall knee OA costs (direct) within a 2-year period; 2) the relative contribution of HA and KA costs; 3) the direct cost savings from HA patients not undergoing KA.Patients and methods: Knee OA patients were identified from the Optum Clinformatics data set, which includes physician, facility, and pharmacy claims data from privately insured patients of all ages. Patients were stratified in the no HA, non-hylan G-F 20, and hylan G-F 20 cohorts. The cumulative costs (payer perspective) were evaluated for all knee OA-related claims (adjusted to Consumer Price Index Jan 2017$) for patients who had at least 2 years follow-up. Costs were stratified into various clinical categories.Results: The study cohort included 2,030,497 knee OA patients, of which 65,144 patients (3.2%) underwent KA. The cost of treating knee OA within the 2-year follow-up period was estimated to be $4.99 billion (B). The majority of the costs (69%) were attributed to KA patients (3.2% of patients). In all, 15.9% of the HA patients underwent KA within 2 years, but HA only contributed 1.7% to the total costs for these patients. The remaining 84.1% of HA patients did not undergo KA, which saved an estimated total of $1.54B (average $20,740 per patient) or 83.9%, after accounting for their non-KA therapies.Conclusion: Our study estimated substantial cost savings through a large percentage of HA patients not undergoing KA. Although a fraction of patients moved on from their conservative therapy to undergo KA within the 2-year period, HA attributed to

Kevin L Ong, Brian Min Yun, Joshua B WhiteExponent, Inc., Philadelphia, PA, USAAbstract: With the increasing use of orthopedic implants worldwide, there continues to be great interest in the development of novel technologies to further improve the effective clinical performance of contemporary treatment modalities and devices. Continuing research interest also exists in developing novel bulk biomaterials (eg, polycarbonate urethanes, silicon) or novel formulations of existing but less widely used biomaterials (eg, polyaryletherketones, polyetheretherketone). There is also growing focus on customizing the material properties of bioabsorbables and composite materials with fillers such as bioactive ceramics. In terms of tissue engineering, more recent developments have focused on basic engineering and biological fundamentals to use cells, signaling factors, and the scaffold material itself to better restore tissue and organ structure and function. There has also been recent controversy with the use of injectables as a nonsurgical approach to treat joint disorders, but more attention is being directed toward the development of newer formulations with different molecular weights. The industry has also continuously sought to improve coatings to supplement the function of existing implants, with the goal of improving their osseointegrative qualities and incorporating antimicrobial properties. These include the use of bone morphogenetic protein, bisphosphonates, calcium phosphate, silicon nitride, and iodine. Due to the widespread use of bone graft materials, recent developments in synthetic graft materials have explored further development of bioactive glass, ceramic materials, and porous titanium particles. This review article provides an overview of ongoing efforts in the above research areas.Keywords: coatings, scaffolds, bioabsorbables, bone graft, injectables

A tool frequently used to assist in performance monitoring and contribute to performance improvement in quality and safety, is the development and monitoring of key performance indicators (KPI). KPIs for Radiographers have remained largely subjective after the mandatory supervised practice period. Literature review was performed from scholarly articles but there was limited yield. The Radiographer specific KPIs were developed using the Department's KPIs and the Institute of Medicine (IOM)'s Domains of Quality Framework, reviewed yearly and evolved: 2013: 5 KPIs set and radiographers graded on a scale of 1-5 for each KPI. 2021: 16 measurable KPIs under the 5 broad categories with targets in percentage compliance. Departmental level and modality level audit teams performed data collection, analysis and quality improvement projects. While the sample size for most audits is between 3-5%, system competency and medication documentation audits had 100% sampling rate. Individual compliance rates were tabulated for the majority of indicators and modality compliance was measured for some indicators. Senior radiographers who performed the audits did so during the low patient load periods of the workday, increasing the manpower productivity during these periods which were typically at the beginning and end of the day. Monitoring data was shared regularly at radiographer meetings, through e-mail, and during the open appraisal exercise for performance feedback and development plans. Over the period of 9 years from 2013 to 2021, despite incremental increases in workload, the monitoring data was used to drive quality improvement and a description of some areas of improvements over the 10 years is as follows: Hand hygiene compliance rate: 65% to 88%; 2 Patient ID documentation compliance rate: 92% to 100%; RIS PACS System competency: 20% - 79% improvement. Performance measurement and monitoring is a tool for evaluation of the progress of a department toward improved outcomes in patient care and reduction in waste. These measures create a wave of reflection in action, enables quality improvement and quantitatively measures progress towards professional goals. Objectivity in performance appraisal increases radiographers' satisfaction and provides tangible goals to strive towards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PURPOSE: The prevalence of obesity has been increasing in the United States. We set out to investigate the use of pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic therapy for the treatment of obesity in recent years. METHODS: We included 2630 men and 2702 women who took part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2007 to 2008. We analyzed their demographic and anthropometric data and their weight and drug history. RESULTS: A total of 45.9% of men and 45.0% of women were candidates for treatment (body mass index >=30 kg/m(2), or >=27 kg/m(2) with risk factors). Among these participants, 85.1% considered themselves overweight, 90.1% would like to lose weight, 61.9% had dietary changes, 36.5% exercised, 3.7% took nonprescription drugs, and 2.2% took prescription drugs to control weight during the preceding year. During the preceding month, 0.5% and 0.1% of participants were taking phentermine and orlistat, respectively. There were no participants on sibutramine. CONCLUSIONS: Although obesity is highly prevalent, only a small percentage of obese Americans are on anti-obesity medication. The withdrawal of sibutramine would have minimal impact on the general population. There is a need for more lifestyle changes in the majority of obese individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is currently the international standard of care for treating degenerative and rheumatologic knee joint disease, as well as certain knee joint fractures. We sought to answer the following three research questions: (1) What is the international variance in primary and revision TKA rates around the world? (2) How do patient demographics (e.g., age, gender) vary internationally? (3) How have the rates of TKA utilization changed over time?Methods: The survey included 18 countries with a total population of 755 million, and an estimated 1,324,000 annual primary and revision total knee procedures. Ten national inpatient databases were queried for this study from Canada, the United States, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland. Inpatient data were also compared with published registry data for eight countries with operating arthroplasty registers (Denmark, England & Wales, Norway, Romania, Scotland, Sweden, Australia, and New Zealand).Results: The average and median rate of primary and revision (combined) total knee replacement was 175 and 149 procedures/100,000 population, respectively, and ranged between 8.8 and 234 procedures/100,000 population. We observed that the procedure rate significantly increased over time for the countries in which historical data were available. The compound annual growth in the incidence of TKA ranged by country from 5.3% (France) to 17% (Portugal). We observed a nearly 27-fold range of TKA utilization rates between the 18 different countries included in the survey.Conclusion: It is apparent from the results of this study that the demand for TKA has risen substantially over the past decade in countries around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PURPOSE: This study aimed to examine the trends in prevalence, treatment, and control of diagnosed diabetes in United States adults 20 years of age or older. METHODS: Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2004 were used. Glycemic, blood pressure, and total cholesterol target levels were defined as having glycosylated hemoglobin <7.0%, blood pressure <130/80 mm Hg, and total cholesterol <200 mg/dL, respectively. RESULTS: The prevalence of diagnosed diabetes was 7.8% in 2003-2004 and increased significantly in people aged 40-59 years, women, non-Hispanic whites, and obese people in the period 1999-2004. Although there was no significant change in the pattern of antidiabetic treatment, the age-adjusted percentage of people with diagnosed diabetes achieving glycemic and blood pressure target levels increased from 35.8% to 57.1% (p = 0.002) and from 35.7% to 48.3% (p = 0.04), respectively. However, there were only insignificant increases in percentages of those persons achieving total cholesterol target level (from 48.8% to 50.4%) and those achieving all 3 target levels (from 7.5% to 13.2%). CONCLUSIONS: In 1999-2004, the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes increased significantly in some subgroups of the population. However, the increases in percentages of people with diabetes achieving glycemic and blood pressure targets are encouraging, although there is room for improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate whether circulating levels of fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), which previously has been shown to be elevated in obesity, could predict the development of type 2 diabetes in a 5.4-year, population-based, prospective study.Research Design and Methods: Baseline plasma FGF21 levels were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 1,900 subjects from the Hong Kong Cardiovascular Risk Factor Prevalence Study (CRISPS). The prospective association of FGF21 with diabetes development over 5.4 years was analyzed using multiple logistic regression.Results: At baseline, plasma levels of FGF21 increased progressively with worsening dysglycemia from normal glucose tolerance, through prediabetes, to diabetes (global trend, P < 0.001). Of 1,292 subjects without diabetes at baseline, a high baseline FGF21 level was a strong independent predictor for diabetes development (odds ratio 1.792; P < 0.01), together with waist circumference and fasting plasma glucose levels.Conclusions: Plasma FGF21 levels were significantly increased in subjects with prediabetes and diabetes and predicted the development of diabetes in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]