Increased Utilization of American Administrative Databases and Large-scale Clinical Registries in Orthopaedic Research, 1996 to 2016

INTRODUCTION: Administrative databases and clinical registries provide large sample sizes that characterize specific outcomes and trends over time in orthopaedic surgery. METHODS: A literature review of all English-language orthopaedic surgery journals was conducted. All publications from 1996 to 2016 were reviewed for the utilization of an administrative database or clinical registry. We performed a linear regression with logarithmic transformation to identify trends in database utilization. RESULTS: Eight hundred forty-nine publications used a database from 1996 to 2016. Each year, 35.3% more database publications are reported than the previous year (95% confidence interval, 30.0 to 40.7), from zero articles in 1996 to 286 in 2016. The ratio of database research publications to overall orthopaedic publications increased from zero in 1996 to 2% in 2016. The most commonly used databases included the National Inpatient Sample and the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program. CONCLUSION: Database research in orthopaedics has grown at a faster rate than orthopaedic literature as a whole.