How to choose a Surgeon

Below are some questions it may be worth asking your surgeon.  Please don’t hesitate to contact any member of our team if you have any queries about the information.

Some questions to ask...

Things to ask your surgeon before your joint replacement

I suggest that you ask your surgeon how long they have been in independent practice (i.e. a Consultant Surgeon)
a figure of more than 10 years would indicate significant experience in this field, providing that their training involved a fellowship in this area and they have maintained sufficient volume of surgery (see below)

You should also ask how many hip or knee replacement they undertake a year

There is good evidence that surgeons who undertake less than 35 Hip replacement a year have poorer outcomes.

Surprisingly 54% of UK surgeons perform less than 35 hip replacements per year!

Reference

You should ask if they know their mortality rates at 30 days

You should ask if they know their Surgical site infection risk

You should ask if they know their five or more year revision rates for hip and knee replacements

You should ask if they have been revalidated by the GMC

You should ask if they hold a substantive NHS consultant post and/or have been appraised within the past year

You should ask if they use ODEP rated prosthesis (implants) or if they are involved in a beyond compliance programme

You should ask if they regularly audit their length of stay, blood transfusion rates and re-admission within 30 days

I do not doubt that there are many excellent Surgeons who may be unable to answer these questions, but given that informed consent for a Hip or Knee replacement involves intimate knowledge of such data and given that most of it is freely available and with the public domain, I would counsel caution or clarification should your surgeon be unaware of the existence of such data as it applies to them

Do they use a Surgical assistant with an NAASP qualification?

National Association of Assistants in Surgical Practice (NAASP)

Some surgeons will not use a dedicated and trained assistant who is highly trained in Orthopaedic procedures and in my opinion, who is integral to the procedure running smoothly

if you have any further questions do not hesitate to contact us

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