Implementation and Application of a Community Total Joint Registry: A Twelve-Year History

The Swedish Knee Arthroplasty Register, a prospective national study of total knee arthroplasty that was begun in 1975, and the corresponding Swedish National Hip Register, which was begun in 1979, have had a dramatic impact on joint arthroplasty in that country and have received increasing attention and imitation in recent years1-7. Sharing registry information with surgeons has been an important factor in allowing Sweden to have a rate of revision hip replacement of approximately 8% compared with 18% in the United States4.