Bad Knee and Hip Replacement Surgeries Land 1 in 7 Canadians Back in Hospital
March 28th, 2008 amy
The Canwest News Service published an interesting article Wednesday reporting that one in seven Canadians who have knee or hip replacement surgeries are ending up back in the hospital within a year.
The article reports, “Of the 51,029 people who underwent a first-time knee or elective hip replacement in 2005-2006, more than 7,700 returned to hospital due to complications including the prosthesis loosening, dislocation or infection. The costs associated with readmitting people are estimated to be about $45 million.”
Those are some frightening odds, and it’s enough to make one wonder how similar those statistics are in the United States. What with Stryker’s defective hip replacements and defective Biomet hip replacements, coupled with many dangerous oxinium knee replacements, there is certainly no shortage of lawsuits against these defective device makers.
According to Canada’s findings, knee surgeries seem to be proving more complicated than hip surgeries. Or, at least more folks are being re-hospitalized in knee replacement cases. Canada’s study finds that admission to hospital following knee surgery has increased by 52 per cent, whereas it increased only 15 per cent for elective hip replacement patients.
