Partial knee operations ‘better for NHS’ say researchers

OFFERING PARTIAL rather than total knee replacements would be beneficial to many patients as well as cheaper for the NHS, a study has suggested.

Nearly 100,000 knee replacements were carried out in 2016, but fewer than one in 10 patients have a partial replacement, a procedure in which only the affected part of the knee joint is replaced.

Researchers from the University of Oxford said about half of patients needing a knee replacement could be suitable for a partial replacement.

The procedure is less invasive, allows for a faster recovery, carries less post-operative risks and provides better function. It is also a cheaper intervention for the NHS in both the short and long term, they said.

Co-lead researcher Professor David Murray said: “This is an important finding. If surgeons aim to use partial knees in a quarter or more of their knee replacements, this will substantially improve the results of knee replacement and will save money. In addition more partial knee replacements will be done and more patients will benefit from this procedure.”

The study saw researchers analyse data from the National Joint Registry (NJR), where they found that partial replacements are better for patients who have only part of their knee affected by arthritis and could therefore have either a partial or a total replacement. According to the NJR, of the 98,147 knee replacements undertaken in 2016, only nine per cent were partial, also known as unicompartmental replacements (UKR).

The research, published in BMJ Open, compared people who had a partial knee replacement with those who had a total knee replacement, but could have had a partial replacement. They found the use of partial replacement varies greatly between different surgeons.

Partial replacements carried out by surgeons using them for a small proportion of knee replacements provide worse outcomes than total replacements.

But partial replacements carried out by surgeons using them for a high proportion of knee replacements provide better outcomes and are cheaper for the NHS than total replacements, they said.