In a national insurance database study published in The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery, researchers found a significant increase in the rate of arthroscopic elbow procedures conducted over a five-year period.
Here are five takeaways from that study.
1. Using the PearlDiver Patient Record Database, researchers looked for patients who had undergone arthroscopic elbow surgery between 2007 and 2011. There were 4,127 patients identified that underwent 6,268 elbow arthroscopies.
2. Procedures and Current Procedural Terminology codes that corresponded with study criteria included diagnostic arthroscopy, loose body removal, synovectomy and debridement.
3. Researchers discovered infection began to set in at 30 days, stiffness occurred at 90 days and nerve injury at 180 days.
4. The results were as follows:
- Between 2007 to 2011 the rate of arthroscopic elbow surgeries increased from 1.27 in 10,000 orthopedic patients to 1.45 in 10,000 orthopedic patients.
- There were 911 out of all elbow arthroscopy patients were under 20 years; 1,067 patients were aged between 20 years and 39 years; and 244 patients were aged 60 years and older.
- Most of the procedures performed (1,959) were done on patients aged between 40 years and 59 years.
5. All procedure types were statistically significant with regard to differences in regions, with the exception of synovectomy. Overall, the reoperation rate was 2.2 percent, with the reoperation rate for infection at 0.26 percent, the reoperation rate for stiffness at 0.63 percent and the reoperation rate for nerve injury at 1.26 percent.