COST EFFECTIVENESS OF BILATERAL SIMULTANEOUS VERSUS STAGED KNEE ARTHROPLASTIES

Objective: to evaluate the cost effectiveness of bilateral simultaneous knee arthroplasty in experienced hands.material and methods: this descriptive study was done in the shotley bridge general hospital county durham england from 2000-2003 on 26 patients undergoing bilateral simultaneous knee arthroplasty. patients were randomized in two equal groups. group a included 13 patients and had staged knee arthoplasty i.e. they had the same procedure in two hospital admissions under different anesthetic session. group b comprised of 13 patients, underwent simultaneous knee arthroplasty. same type of knee prosthesis was used in all cases and were operated by same surgeon in same institution.results: in group a, 9 (69.2%) patients had osteoarthritis and 4 (30.8%) had rheumatoid arthritis while in group b twelve patients had osteoarthritis and one had rheumatoid arthritis. only one patient had transient ischemic attack in group a while there was one case of deep vein thrombosis in group b. average hospital stay for both groups was 15 days. the average cost for group a was sterling £ 8950/- (rs.1163500/-) and for group b was sterling £ 5265/-(rs.684450/-).conclusion: this study shows that bilateral simultaneous arthroplasty is cost effective in experienced hands and do not have increased rate of complications