Reduction in Mortality following Elective Major Hip and Knee Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND: Systematic reviews reporting time trends in mortality following major orthopaedic surgery are few and have limitations. They reported on only a fraction (< 15%) of the available data and did not investigate potential causes of the reduction in mortality. METHODS: We searched PubMed for randomized trials and observational studies, published between 1950 and 2016, reporting on mortality within 3 months of elective total hip and knee replacement (THR/TKR). Mortality risks were estimated for each 5-year interval using a Poisson regression model and presented by study design and mode of prophylaxis. To estimate the mortality reduction unrelated to anti-thrombotic use, we performed a pooled analysis of four thromboprophylaxis strategies for which data spanned five decades. RESULTS: We identified 255 eligible studies, which documented 31,604 deaths among 6,293,954 patients, and found a consistent decline in mortality irrespective of study design and mode of prophylaxis. Mortality declined from 1.15% pre-1980 to 0.24% post-2000, a 78.7% relative risk reduction (95% confidence interval [CI]: 74.7-82.1%) in randomized and cohort studies. Furthermore, our data showed a 74.4% (95% CI: 68.7-79.0%) relative reduction in mortality independent of the methods of prophylaxis, thereby indicating that improvements in peri-operative care unrelated to anti-thrombotic prophylaxis played a major role in such reduction. CONCLUSION: Mortality following elective THR/TKR has markedly declined over the past 50 years and is now low irrespective of which prophylactic agent is being used. Although anti-thrombotic prophylaxis may have contributed, other improvements in peri-operative care played a major role in the mortality reduction.