title: Outcome in patients lost to follow-up.
abstract: Long-term outcome studies are valuable for providing information on the results of joint arthroplasty. However, a progressively increasing rate of attrition correlates with the length of study. The attrition rate of patients "lost to follow-up" ("non-attenders") may have a significant effect on the reported outcome. The goal of this study was to analyze the effect of the outcome in patients lost to follow-up on analysis in the setting of total knee arthroplasty. We found a lower rate of failure for revision surgery and higher satisfactory results in "non-attenders" compared with patients completing follow-up. No statistical effect of loss to follow-up care was noted on survivorship analysis when revision surgery or revision plus severe pain were considered as end points. Therefore, the patients who do not attend follow-up visits do not necessarily have poor results.
authors.forename: Atul B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Joshi
authors.forename: Gurdev S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Gill
authors.forename: Patricia L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D019645:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome