Faster, Cheaper Joint-Replacement Surgeries Available

Workers’ compensation patients could easily have total joint replacements done in an outpatient setting – which could drastically reduce the cost – but it appears that most are still spending multiple days in hospitals following the surgeries. Total knee and hip replacements have become much more common in the U.S. in the past several decades, according to the Official Disability Guidelines. The rate of total knee replacement climbed from 31.2 per 100,000 person-years in the early 1970s to 220.9 per 100,000 person-years in 2008. Thomas Donaldson, an orthopedic surgeon in Co...