Need for a national arthroplasty register

Several points arise from David H Sochart and colleagues’ editorial outlining the need for a national arthroplasty register.1 The authors are correct in stating that there is a regional register of hip and knee arthroplasties in Trent, funded by the region; as this has been functioning since 1990 and has funding from the Department of Health to assess the five year outcome of the 1990 cohort of primary total hip replacements, however, we would not term it a pilot study.