Measure description
Percentage of patients 18 years of age and older who received an elective primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and completed a functional status assessment within 90 days prior to the surgery and in the 270-365 days after the surgery
Rationale
Total knee arthroplasties (TKAs) are common surgical procedures for addressing knee pain and functional impairment caused primarily caused by osteoarthritis. From 2008 to 2010, TKAs were the most common procedure for adults age 45 and older. From 2000 to 2010, physicians performed 5.2 million TKAs, with 693,400 procedures performed in 2010 alone (Williams, Wolford, & Bercovitz, 2015). Although TKA s were introduced as a procedure for the elderly, the mean age of patients undergoing TKA is decreasing. In 2010, the mean age for those undergoing TKA was 66.2, a 3.9 percent decrease from 68.9 in 2000. Kurtz et al. (2009) projected that patients younger than 65 would account for 55 percent of TKAs by 2030. This growth in knee surgeries for younger patients is significant because they often require more expensive joint arthroplasties that will better withstand wear caused by physical activity (Bozic et al., 2006).
This measure evaluates whether patients complete a patient-reported functional status assessment (FSA) before and after a TKA. Measuring functional status for patients undergoing total knee replacement permits longitudinal assessment - from the patient's perspective - of the impact of surgical intervention on pain, physical function, as well as health-related quality of life (Rothrock et al., 2010).
Clinical Recommendation Statements
The American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) states that it is important to ensure that the general/mental health survey be completed prior to surgery during the preoperative visit, as well as the post-operative visit. AAHKS (2015) recommends using a general health instrument, such as the Veterans RAND 12-item health survey (VR-12) or PROMIS Global 10 in addition to condition-specific tools.