Outcome after total hip arthroplasty Part I. General health evaluation in relation to definition of failure in the Swedish National Total Hip Arthroplasty register

The Swedish National Total Hip Arthroplasty register, which was started in 1979, is one of the oldest national quality registers in the world and cons ists of over 160,000 primary operations and 12,500 revisions. The register identifies risk factors for poor outcomes related to the patient, implant a nd surgical techniques. The end-point for failure, i.e., revision, dues not provide information about the patient's general health after the primary p rocedure. The aim of this study was twofold. First, to validate the end-poi nt for failure in the Swedish National Total Hip Arthroplasty register and secondly, to study general health after total hip arthroplasty. We validate d the outcome of 1,056 primary THRs randomly selected from the Discharge re gister in Sweden by comparing the data to the Swedish THA register. These p atients had answered the SF-36 and Nottingham Health Profile questionnaires . By comparing the clinical outcome, measured as general health, with the r esults obtained from the register, we evaluated the importance of the end-p oint for failure. We found that the end-point was useful, but further evalu ations are desirable. Patients operated on with hip replacement do very wel l up to 10 years postoperatively and those who are not revised have good ge neral health. The findings in this study can be used as a reference for oth ers as it shows results from a national register, with a random selection o f the study cohort.