Registration of hip prostheses at the Rizzoli Institute. 11 years' experience.

Abstract

On the basis of outstanding results obtained by Scandinavian arthroplasty registers(Herberts and Malchau 2000, Havelin 1999, Lucht 2000, Paavolainen et al 1991), a similar local register was set up at Rizzoli Institute, in Italy. It began in 1997, with a retrospective analysis of all total hip replacements performed at the Institute since 1990; since then it has been continuously updated with all hip prosthetic surgeries. Rizzoli Institute is the only orthopaedic unispecialistic research hospital in Italy. It is composed of 10 wards, some of them mainly specialized in joint replacement. Patients of the Institute come from all over the country either for primary or for revision surgery. In particular the most complex diseases are treated at our institute (sequelae of congenital hip dysplasia, secondary arthritis, revision surgery). Rizzoli Institute is in Emilia-Romagna, a region in the north of Italy with about 4 million inhabitants (of whom 1,100.000 are over 60 years old). Based on the experience acquired at our institute, in the last two years our register has been extended to more than 50 hospitals and private clinics of the region, which combined carry out about 3,500 total hip replacements per year.