National Joint Replacement Registries: Has the Time Come?

Total joint replacement surgery is widely recognized as one of the most cost‐effective interventions in medicine today. The impact that these procedures have on quality of life has been well documented1. New implants are designed and manufactured with the expectation that they will be equivalent or superior to existing products. Regardless of how much testing is done prior to product release, in reality our patients are the final testing grounds for new devices. Only in our patients do all of the variables that affect outcome—that is, design issues, material issues, manufacturing issues, patient‐related factors, and surgical technique—finally come into play. As a result, premature failures can and do occur.