American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, Feb. 12 to 16

The annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons was held from Feb. 12 to 16 in San Francisco and attracted approximately 30,000 participants from around the world. The conference highlighted recent advances in the diagnosis and management of musculoskeletal conditions, with presentations focusing on joint fractures, osteoarthritis, other musculoskeletal injuries, and factors impacting the outcomes of joint replacement procedures.

In one study, Daniel Pereira, M.D., of Washington University in St. Louis, and colleagues found that total hip arthroplasty should be offered to patients who successfully lose weight using semaglutide and are thus indicated for the procedure.

The authors used a national cohort of more than 40,000 patients to enroll those who met initial inclusion criteria in the study. Propensity score matching was conducted to simulate randomization and one-to-one matching of most key patient metrics. More than 600 patients were rigorously matched using this model. The researchers observed no significant differences in all outcomes measured, including mortality, dislocation, reoperation, infection, or revision, between patients who used semaglutide and patients with no prior use of the medication.

“Our study demonstrates no adverse outcomes to utilizing semaglutide prior to receiving a total hip arthroplasty,” Pereira said. “Surgeons should not hesitate, thus, to offer this procedure to indicated patients who lost weight using this medication or who utilize it for other purposes, such as diabetes.”

Abstract

Lucas Nikkel, M.D., of Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues found that robotic-assisted knee replacement does not reduce the need for another operation in the first two years after replacement.

The authors conducted a retrospective cohort review of 9,220 patients with osteoarthritis, ages 65 years or older, who underwent primary total knee replacement between January 2017 and March 2020. The researchers found that robotic-assisted knee replacement performed similarly to conventional techniques in terms of risk for early failure when using cementless implants.

“While there may be benefits in terms of precision with robotics, this does not seem to translate into preventing early revision,” Nikkel said. “More attention is being paid to alternative alignment techniques and robotic systems that have the ability to capture a tremendous amount of data about how knee replacements are done. When this can be paired with outcomes data to define best targets for how to put in a knee replacement, there is the potential that the technology will really help to improve outcomes.”

Abstract

Jay Zaifman, M.D., of NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital in New York City, and colleagues found that the incidence and number of sports-related orthopedic injuries in the United States are likely to continue to increase among patients aged 65 years and older.