How often do you operate?

‘ PATIENTS shouldn’t be afraid of asking their surgeon about the number of knee replacements they carry out,’ says Professor Phil Turner, a knee surgeon at the NHS Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport and vice-president of the British Orthopaedic Association. ‘The key is accuracy putting the implant in and, in general, the more operations a surgeon does, the better they will be at it. If a surgeon is doing fewer than 20 a year, that’s not a good sign and patients should think about going elsewhere. Most specialist knee replacement surgeons will be doing a least 150 a year.’