Trends in the Surgical Treatment of Articular Cartilage Lesions in the United States: An Analysis of a Large Private-Payer Database Over a Period of 8 Years

doi:10.1016/j.arthro.2013.11.001

Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic & Related Surgery

Volume 30, Issue 2, February 2014, Pages 222-226

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arthro.2013.11.001 Get rights and content

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to quantify the current trends in knee cartilage surgical techniques performed in the United States from 2004 through 2011 using a large private-payer database. A secondary objective was to identify salient demographic factors associated with these procedures.

Methods

We performed a retrospective database review using a large private-payer medical record database within the PearlDiver database. The PearlDiver database is a publicly available, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act–compliant national database compiled from a collection of private insurer records. A search was performed for surgical techniques in cartilage palliation (chondroplasty), repair (microfracture/drilling), and restoration (arthroscopic osteochondral autograft, arthroscopic osteochondral allograft, autologous chondrocyte implantation, open osteochondral allograft, and open osteochondral autograft). The incidence, growth, and demographic factors associated with the surgical procedures were assessed.

Results

From 2004 through 2011, 198,876,000 patients were analyzed. A surgical procedure addressing a cartilage defect was performed in 1,959,007 patients, for a mean annual incidence of 90 surgeries per 10,000 patients. Across all cartilage procedures, there was a 5.0% annual incidence growth (palliative, 3.7%; repair, 0%; and restorative, 3.1%) (P = .027). Palliative techniques (chondroplasty) were more common (>2:1 ratio for repair [marrow-stimulation techniques] and 50:1 ratio for restoration [autologous chondrocyte implantation and osteochondral autograft and allograft]). Palliative surgical approaches were the most common technique, regardless of age, sex, or region.

Conclusions

Articular cartilage surgical procedures in the knee are common in the United States, with an annual incidence growth of 5%. Surgical techniques aimed at palliation are more common than cartilage repair and restoration techniques regardless of age, sex, or region.

Level of Evidence

Level IV, retrospective database analysis.

Section snippets

Methods

We performed a retrospective review of a large private-payer medical record database within the PearlDiver database. The PearlDiver database is a publicly available, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act–compliant national database compiled from a collection of private insurer records, with UnitedHealth Group representing the largest contributing individual health plan. The database has more than 2 billion individual patient records and contains Current Procedural Terminology

Results

We analyzed 198,876,000 patients' charts. There were 1,959,007 patients (0.99%) who underwent a surgical procedure addressing a cartilage defect in the knee. The mean annual incidence was 90 surgeries per 10,000 patients. The total number of patients analyzed in the database, by year, is listed in Table 2. There was no significant change in the number of patients in the database over the study timeframe (P = .140). The estimated number of procedures performed annually, based on 2000 and 2010 US

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to quantify the number of articular cartilage surgical techniques performed in the knee in the United States over the past 8 years using a large private-payer database. The study's key finding is that a large number of patients are undergoing arthroscopic cartilage surgery of the knee each year in the United States and the number of cartilage surgical techniques per year is significantly increasing, at an annual incidence increase of 5%. A mean incidence of 90

Conclusions

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Level III, retrospective comparative cohort.
Utilization of Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation in the Knee Is Increasing While Reoperation Rates Are Decreasing Despite Increasing Preoperative Comorbidities
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The primary purpose of this study was to assess the use of autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) procedures in the knee during last decade, and the secondary aims of the study were to determine reoperation rates after ACI and to identify associated risk factors.
A retrospective cohort study from 2010–2020 was performed using the PearlDiver database. The database was queried for the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code for ACI performed in any knee location, including the patellofemoral and tibiofemoral joints. Reoperation was defined as interventional knee procedures or total knee arthroplasty after ACI. Reoperations were identified using CPT and International Classification of Diseases codes. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used to identify risk factors for reoperation. Significance was defined as P < .05.
Among the 2010 patients included in this study, there were 90-day and overall reoperation rates of 2.24% and 30.4%, respectively, with an average follow up of 4.8 ± 3.3 years. The most common reoperations included chondroplasty, meniscectomy, and microfracture. There was an increased rate of ACI performed from 2017–2019 (5.53/100,000) compared to 2014–2016 (4.16/100,000; P < .001). ACI surgeries performed in 2017–2019 were associated with decreased risk of reoperation within 2 years relative to 2014–2016 (odds ratio [OR] = 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.52-0.94; P = .019). In the entire ACI cohort, older age (OR = 1.07; 95% CI, 1.05-1.09; P < .001) and tobacco use (OR = 2.13; 95% CI, 1.06-3.94; P = .022) were associated with increased risk of conversion to arthroplasty. Male sex was associated with decreased overall reoperation rates (OR = 0.73; 95% CI, 0.60-0.89; P = .002).
There has been increasing use of ACI in the knee with decreased risk of reoperation since 2017 and the introduction of matrix-associated autologous chondrocyte implantation. Older age and tobacco use were predictors of increased risk of conversion to arthroplasty. Male sex was associated with decreased risk of reoperation.
Level IV, retrospective cohort design; database study.
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The research aims to evaluate short- and medium-term outcomes of patients treated using autologous matrix-induced chondrogenesis (AMIC) with a hyaluronic acid scaffold (Hyalofast, Anika Therapeutics, MA, USA) in grade IV chondral lesions according to the Outerbridge classification in the knee.
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Fifty patients (28 female) with a mean age of 45.9 ± 12.7 years were recruited. The mean size of the lesion was 3.5 cm², and the injuries located in the patella (30%) and trochlear groove (24%) were the most frequent. The total IKDC clinical score significantly increased from baseline to the 32 months of follow-up with a mean difference of 36.4 (95% CI, 29.1–43.7, p < 0.001). Besides, there was a statistically significant improvement in all categories of the IKDC (symptoms, sports activities, function, and activity of daily living) compared between pre-surgery and 24 and 32 months of follow-up. The patients younger than 45 years presented better clinical outcomes than older ones with a difference between medians of 10.40 (95% CI, 1.10–11.50, p = 0.0247), and a negative correlation was found between the 32-month IKDC score and the age. In addition, no statistically significant difference was found when comparing the last results of the IKDC between patients with and without associated surgical procedures or between patients with single and several lesions, neither nor between men and women. The level of satisfaction with the procedure of all the patients, on a score of 1–10, was on average 8 ± 1.5.
Results of this study indicate that patients who underwent the AMIC procedure with hyaluronic acid scaffold for the treatment of grade IV chondral lesions in the knee presented satisfactory results throughout the follow-up.
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The role of proximal tibial osteotomy in joint preservation
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Tibial osteotomy has a role in various aspects of joint preservation. Proper diagnosis and addressing all aspects of alignment both for focal cartilage lesions to support restorative repair procedures as well as in treatment of earlier phases of knee osteoarthritis in well selected patients. Malalignment of the leg axis is known to result in chronic overloading and thus contributing to the development of focal lesions as well as osteoarthritis.
To provide a comprehensive summary of the current state of utilization of tibial osteotomies in conjunction with other joint preserving procedures and to synthesize the current scientific evidence for the use of osteotomies in the setting of cartilage injuries.
PubMed, Medline, Cochrane Systematic Reviews, and Clinical Keys were searched by the first author (M.H.) to validate that all papers of relevance to the area studied were included. Databases were searched comprehensively, and original research, systematic reviews, and meta-analysis were included at the authors’ discretion. References of selected articles were analyzed manually. Data from selected publications focused on tibial osteotomy were summarized.
Leg axis and patellofemoral alignment must be considered as important risk factors for failure of restorative cartilage procedures in the knee joint. Alignment-correcting osteotomies play a crucial role in enhancing clinical results of cartilage repair surgeries especially in the long-term. Through the redistribution of load, the biomechanical environment of the joint is optimized, and the induced or transplanted repair tissue is protected against overloading, facilitating enhanced tissue maturation. Recent evidence suggests that even small deviations from a neutral axis (<5°) should be corrected by osteotomy. Preoperative investigation of potential malalignment would therefore be beneficial in every patient who is considered for cartilage repair and joint preservation.
Joint preservation procedures profit from addressing alignment by proximal tibial osteotomy. Unloading osteotomies are of utmost importance to facilitate a joint environment in which these procedures can be carried out successfully, reliably contributing to the long-term durability of cartilage restoration.
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Clinical decision-making is highly based on expert opinion. Machine learning is increasingly used to develop patient-specific risk prediction analysis to improve patient selection prior to surgery.
To develop machine learning algorithms to predict failure of surgical procedures that address cartilage defects of the knee and detect variables associated with failure.
An institutional database was queried for cartilage procedures performed between 2000 and 2018. Failure was defined as revision cartilage surgery or knee arthroplasty. One hundred and one preoperative and intraoperative features were evaluated as potential predictors. Four machine learning algorithms were trained and internally validated.
One thousand and ninety-one patients with a minimum follow-up of 2 years were included and underwent chondroplasty (n = 560; 51%), osteochondral allograft transplantation (n = 306; 28%), microfracture (n = 150; 14%), autologous chondrocyte implantation (n = 39; 4%), or osteochondral autograft transplantation (n = 36; 3%). The Random Forest algorithm was the best-performing algorithm, with an area under the curve of 0.765 and a Brier score of 0.135. The most important features for predicting failure were symptom duration, age, body mass index, lesion grade, and total lesion area. Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations analysis provided patient-specific comparisons for the risk of failure of an individual patient being assigned various types of cartilage procedures.
Machine learning algorithms were accurate in predicting the risk of failure following cartilage procedures of the knee, with the most important features in descending order being symptom duration, age, body mass index, lesion grade, and total lesion area. Machine learning algorithms may be used to compare the risk of failure of specific patient-procedure combinations in the treatment of cartilage defects of the knee.
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Extrusion bioprinted constructs for osteochondral tissue engineering were fabricated to study the effect of multi-material architecture on encapsulated human mesenchymal stem cells’ tissue-specific matrix deposition and integration into an ex vivo porcine osteochondral explant model. Two extrusion fiber architecture groups with differing transition regions and degrees of bone- and cartilage-like bioink mixing were employed. The gradient fiber (G-Fib) architecture group showed an increase in chondral integration over time, 18.5 ± 0.7 kPa on Day 21 compared to 9.6 ± 1.6 kPa on Day 1 for the required peak push-out force, and the segmented fiber (S-Fib) architecture group did not, which corresponded to the increase in sulfated glycosaminoglycan deposition noted only in the G-Fib group and the staining for cellularity and tissue-specific matrix deposition at the fiber-defect boundary. Conversely, the S-Fib architecture was associated with significant mineralization over time, but the G-Fib architecture was not. Notably, both fiber groups also had similar chondral integration as a re-inserted osteochondral tissue control. While architecture did dictate differences in the cells’ responses to their environment, architecture was not shown to distinguish a statistically significant difference in tissue integration via fiber push-out testing within a given time point or explant region. Use of this three-week osteochondral model demonstrates that these bioink formulations support the fabrication of cell-laden constructs that integrate into explanted tissue as capably as natural tissue and encapsulate osteochondral matrix-producing cells, and it also highlights the important role that spatial architecture plays in the engineering of multi-phasic tissue environments.
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: The authors report the following potential conflict of interest or source of funding: F.M., R.F., and H.W. have received support from the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation. B.B. has received support from Arthrex, Linvatec, Smith & Nephew, ConMed Linvatec, and Ossur. B.C. has received support from Zimmer, Arthrex, Carticept, Biomimmetic, Allosource, DePuy, Regentis, Smith & Nephew, DJ Ortho, Johnson & Johnson, Genzyme, ConMed Linvatec, and Ossur.

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Original ArticleTrends in the Surgical Treatment of Articular Cartilage Lesions in the United States: An Analysis of a Large Private-Payer Database Over a Period of 8 Years

Purpose

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Level of Evidence

Section snippets

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusions

Osteoarthritis Cartilage

Arthroscopy

Arthroscopy

Arthroscopy

We do not have evidence based methods for the treatment of cartilage defects in the knee

Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc

Overview of existing cartilage repair technology

Sports Med Arthrosc

Surgical treatment for early osteoarthritis. Part I: Cartilage repair procedures

Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc

Original Article
Trends in the Surgical Treatment of Articular Cartilage Lesions in the United States: An Analysis of a Large Private-Payer Database Over a Period of 8 Years