'The high price of hips'. Whose name is on the bill?
Many of hospital's more secret corners have been the subject of television exposés in the past 12 months and it was probably long overdue that the validity of joint replacement should finally come under scrutiny. Public Eye did just this (BBC2, February 26th 1993), investigating the number of revision hip arthroplasties that are becoming necessary in the UK--some 12% at the last report with a projected increase over the next two years to a massive 30%. The likely repercussions from this and the inability of our groaning health service to cope with the influx, are truly staggering and will mean that people waiting for primary replacements will simply wait longer and longer.
Fox
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JA
D006622:Hip Prosthesis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods*; D009871:Operating Room Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D012086:Reoperation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000517:prevention & control*