(iii) New trends in total hip replacement: follow-up is it required and who pays?

SummaryTotal hip replacement is one of the most successful operations in modern medicine. Over 70,000 hip replacements were performed in England and Wales in 2006/7, with 61,456 reported to the National Joint Registry. Ensuring ongoing success of the procedure requires surveillance of results and patient follow-up.The follow-up arrangements vary between surgeons and hospitals across the United Kingdom. Recently, there has been much attention given to the importance and the cost of follow-up to the National Health Service. Some of this attention has been focused on minimising or removing follow-up from secondary care while others have focused on the importance and significance of outpatient follow-up. Both of these options have significant cost implications. The patient, surgeon, implant or purchaser may benefit from the long term follow-up of a Total Hip Replacement (THR). We will assess the potential benefits to these groups and assess the cost.We attempt to look at the importance of follow-up, current guidelines, minimum requirements, protocols and costs.