Abstract
Background: Understanding time trends in age, demographic characteristics, and comorbidities is especially critical to highlight the effects on clinical practice change, outcomes, and the value of total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify trends in the demographic characteristics, comorbidities, and episode-of-care outcomes for patients who underwent TKA from 2008 to 2018. Methods: The National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) was queried to identify patient demographic characteristics, comorbidities, and episode-of-care outcomes in patients who underwent primary TKA from 2008 to 2018 (n = 350,879). Trends for continuous variables were analyzed using analysis of variance, and categorical variables were analyzed using chi-square tests. Results: From 2008 to 2018, there was no clinically important difference in age, body mass index (BMI), and percentage of patients with BMI of >40 kg/m2 and no clinically important difference in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (3.5% in 2008 and 3.2% in 2018), congestive heart failure within 30 days (0.3% in both 2008 and 2018), and acute renal failure (0.1% in 2008 and 40 kg/m2; or patients with diabetes mellitus, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure within 30 days, or acute renal failure. Our findings may be a reflection of a global shift toward value-based care focusing on patient optimization prior to arthroplasty, quality of care, and improved outcomes. The results of our study highlight the potential increase in TKA procedural value, which is paramount for health-care policy changes in today’s incentivized, value-based, health-care environment.

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