The role of surgeon volume on patient outcome in total knee arthroplasty: a systematic review of the literature

Primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is recognized as an effective treatment for alleviating the pain and disability associated with end stage knee osteoarthritis[1, 2]. Despite the widespread success of primary TKA, a significant minority of patients (ranging from 10-20%) continue to experience complications and report poor outcomes following this procedure[2, 3]. The implications are significant considering that the total number of primary TKA procedures is expected to increase by over 600% in the United States alone, to nearly 3.5 million procedures over the next 20 years[4].

A number of factors have been identified as influencing TKA outcomes, including patient factors such as gender and medical comorbidity[5, 6], technical factors such as alignment of the prosthesis[7], and provider factors such as hospital and surgeon procedure volumes[8‐10]. Recently, strategies aimed at optimizing provider factors have been proposed, including regionalization of total joint arthroplasty to higher volume centers, and adoption of volume standards[8, 10, 11].

Higher hospital procedure volumes have been associated with improved outcomes across a variety of cardiac, vascular and oncologic surgeries[12‐14]. Several studies have examined the influence of hospital volume on TKA outcomes as well[10, 15‐17]. Higher hospital volumes have been shown to be negatively associated with mortality rates and positively associated with implant survivorship following TKA[18]. However, the association between surgeon volume and TKA outcomes is unclear. Over the past two decades a number of studies have examined the influence of surgeon volume on various TKA outcomes. However, there has not been a systematic review which has focused exclusively on surgeon volume and primary TKA outcomes. To contribute to the discussions concerning the optimization of provider factors and proposals to regionalize TKA practices, we undertook a systematic review to investigate the association between surgeon volume and primary TKA outcomes.

Understanding the relationship between provider volume and outcomes for TKA is critical to informing discussions concerning ‘centralization’ or ‘regionalization’[24] and overall efforts to improve quality and outcomes of care in TKA. The principle behind centralization or regionalization is that improved patient outcomes can be achieved by concentrating complex surgical procedures in regional centers, or “centers of excellence”. Several studies have demonstrated a relationship between higher provider volumes and improved outcomes for surgical procedures such as coronary artery bypass grafting, aortic aneurysm repair, carotid endarterectomy, and complex gastrointestinal surgeries[46]. Two principal hypotheses have been put forward to explain these observations: (1) physicians and hospitals develop more effective skills as they treat more patients (‘practice makes perfect’) and (2) physicians and hospitals reporting better outcomes receive more referrals and thus accrue larger volumes (‘selective referral’)[14, 46]. If these hypotheses are broadly applicable, our expectation was that similar positive associations between higher surgeon volume and improved patient outcomes would be observed in TKA.

Our review of the limited literature in primary TKA revealed significant variability across studies in the categorization of surgeon procedure volumes. This variability rendered comparisons of study findings challenging, and highlighted a critical need for consistency in future research. Despite these challenges, we report a general trend of improved outcomes among ‘higher’ volume surgeons although we are careful to note that statistical significance was not achieved across all studies or outcomes. After reviewing the available studies, we would identify a high surgeon volume as > 50 TKA per year. Three studies identified a statistically significant relationship between low surgeon volume and higher infection rates (0.26% - 2.8% higher). While the magnitude of the reported differences in infection rates were relatively small, when considered in the context of the expected 3.5 million TKA procedures to be performed over the next 20 years in the US alone, this may represent a significant outcome at a population level.

The majority of studies examining LOS found a statistically significant increase in LOS for LV surgeons. Evidence on process of care adherence (such as use of antibiotic prophylaxis, DVT prophylaxis, beta-blocker use in high risk patients) has demonstrated that adherence to evidence-based processes of care improves quality of care and decreases LOS in total joint replacement surgery[23]. Bozic et al found a weak negative correlation between surgeon volume and number of missed evidence based processes of care[23]. It is possible that adherence to evidence based processes of care may account for some of the decreases in LOS for HV surgeons. Similarly, utilization of clinical care pathways for patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty have also demonstrated improved quality of care and shorter LOS[47‐49]. It is not known however, if LV surgeons are less likely to utilize a clinical care pathway. Further study in the relationship between surgeon volume, clinical care pathways and process of care measures may be useful in understanding why LV surgeons have longer LOS.

Early to midterm (up to 8 years) implant survivorship did not appear to be influenced by surgeon volume[18, 25, 32]. Whether similar findings hold over the longer-term (i.e. >8 years) is unknown. Further long term survivorship studies would be useful in understanding the relationship between surgeon volume and implant survivorship.

In the one study which examined patient-reported outcomes, Katz et al (2007) reported a positive association between LV surgeons and poorer TKA outcomes[9]. However, the lack of additional studies examining patient-reported outcomes precludes any general statement concerning the influence of surgeon volume on these outcomes. It also highlights an important need for further work in this area to critically inform relevant policy discussions and decisions concerning TKA.

Studies examining hospital volume and TKA outcomes have demonstrated decreased mortality, infection and pulmonary embolism[8, 10, 16, 32, 39]. Furthermore, two studies have demonstrated decreased TKA survivorship for low volume hospitals[18, 32]. Given these findings, hospital volume appears to have more impact on outcome for TKA than surgeon volume, however the quality and limitations of these studies prevents the delivery of definitive or ‘strong’ recommendations at this point[20]. Further studies will be important in determining the relative importance of surgeon volume and hospital volume to TKA outcome.

In 2002, Halm et al performed a review of the literature on volume-related outcomes in health care, and included a wide variety of surgical procedures[14]. They identified one study that examined the influence of hospital volume on TKA outcomes. In 2007, Shervin et al performed a review of orthopedic procedures, examining the association between hospital and surgeon volume, and outcomes[50]. In their review, they included 4 studies examining TKA outcomes and surgeon volume which are also included in this review. Finally, 2 recent reviews by Marlow et al and Critchely et al, examined surgeon volume and outcomes in TKA procedures. Both reviewed primary and revision knee arthroplasty procedures[24, 51]. Marlow et al included 3 studies that examined surgeon volume and primary TKA outcomes[24]. Critchley et al presented data on primary hip and knee arthroplasty procedures together[51]. The present review differs from and expands on the prior reviews in that the present focus was on primary TKA outcomes alone, and the association with surgeon volume. Furthermore, we included several recently published studies not included in previous reviews.

Due to the nature of the literature from which this review was derived, there are study limitations. Studies on surgeon volume are primarily retrospective in nature and based on national health care databases and surveys which are limited in the number of variables collected. Furthermore, different health care databases capture different patient groups making comparisons challenging. Medicare data in the US contains data on patients over 65, which is different from other national health care databases such as OHIP. As with all non-randomized studies, there is potential for uncontrolled confounding factors which can bias the results. Additionally, the studies reviewed were variable in methodology, with variable thresholds for surgeon volume categorization. Similarly, studies were highly variable in outcomes measured (i.e. superficial vs. deep infection), and timing of measured outcomes (i.e. in-hospital vs. 90 day MR). The variability across the key variable of surgeon volume precluded formal meta-analysis from being performed.

While our findings suggest a trend towards better outcomes for higher volume surgeons, we do not believe there is sufficient evidence to fully support initiatives to concentrate procedures within specific regions or centres on the basis of surgeon volume alone. All of the available studies are of ‘low quality’ as per GRADE system, making any clinical recommendations challenging. In addition, it is unclear if this general trend of improved outcomes for higher volume surgeons warrants regionalization to higher volume surgeons. Studies examining the effect of regionalization of TKA to high volume hospitals provide some evidence that regionalization may not be the solution[35, 52]. Evidence suggests that some patients would refuse to have surgery in an unfamiliar setting, preferring to attend a local health provider with lower procedure volume[35, 52]. In the US, the poor, less educated, elderly, as well as racial/ethnic minorities are more likely to undergo TKA at low volume centers[11, 36, 38]. Regionalization of TKA to high volume centres and surgeons may further exacerbate existing disparities in the utilization of TKA and restrict access to some patients who would otherwise use a low volume provider for TKA, increasing the number of patients who decline or defer their elective TKA surgery with resultant poorer health outcomes[2, 11, 53]. A regionalization program involving referral to high volume surgeons and hospitals might decrease the already low rate of perioperative complications at the cost of increasing arthritis related disability[11]. Evidence suggests that having TKA in low volume hospitals costs more and produces worse outcomes than having TKA in high volume centers, but having TKA in low volume centers is still more cost effective than not having TKA at all[35]. While these studies were specific to examining the role of hospital volume on cost effectiveness of TKA, it is possible that the same may hold true for surgeon volume and TKA. Further study into the cost effectiveness of regionalization will be paramount before a universal referral program designed to shift patients to high volume surgeons becomes policy. Cost utilization and effectiveness will be crucial as healthcare resources become more scarce, with the principle of providing optimum patient care in the most efficient manner the ultimate goal.

There is a general trend towards better outcomes for higher volume surgeons, however it is unclear if this trend warrants widespread adoption of regionalization policies. The evidence that is available is of ‘low quality’ and the strength of recommendations from the available evidence is weak. Further study is needed before regionalization policies are adopted.