FRIDAY, March 31 (HealthDay News) -- A decline in rheumatoid arthritis-related lower-limb surgeries has been noted in a review of Swedish hospital records dating from 1987 to 2001, according to a report in the March issue of Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. The authors suggest this may reflect trends in disease severity, management and health outcomes of arthritis.
To analyze use of orthopaedic surgery to the lower limbs, Rudiger J. Weiss from the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues reviewed data for all rheumatoid arthritis patients recorded in the Swedish National Hospital Discharge Register who were admitted between 1987 and 2001. The need for surgery is a common marker of disease severity.
The study included 49,802 rheumatoid arthritis patients, accounting for 159,888 inpatient hospital admissions. The admissions decreased by 42 percent during the time period. About 12 percent of the visits involved lower-limb surgeries, many of them total joint arthroplasties. Admissions for rheumatoid arthritis-related lower-limb surgeries dropped by 16 percent in the first nine years of the study period and additional 12 percent in the last four years. The authors also noted a trend of reduced hospital stays when the surgeries were performed.
"During the past 15 years, the need for orthopaedic surgery and hospital admission has decreased consistently," they conclude. "This can be seen as reflecting improvements in the management of rheumatoid arthritis and in this particular orthopaedic field."
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