The Swedish Arthroplasty Register

The Swedish Arthroplasty Register (SAR) is a National Quality Register. The register is a merger of the two oldest national arthroplasty registers, the Swedish Knee Arthroplasty Register and the Swedish Hip Arthroplasty Register, including knee replacements since 1975, hip replacements since 1979, hemiarthroplasties since 2005 and knee osteotomies since 2013. Reoperations, revisions and other procedures, related to the knee or hip are registered as well as patient reported outcome. The register includes information on demography, prophylaxis, surgical technique and type of implant on individual level.

Approximately 25,000 hip replacements and approximately 19,000 knee replacements including reoperations are performed in Sweden yearly. All units performing hip and/or knee replacements in Sweden report to the register and the completeness is 98 %.

The aim of the register is to collect, analyse and render information to maintain a continuously follow-up of the quality, contribute to improvement work and research to gain knowledge and give the patients the best possible care.

The SAR is supported by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions. The Board and Steering Group are appointed in consultation with the Swedish Orthopaedic Association. The Board is responsible for this web site.

Two registers became one

The story tells, that during a bus tour in San Diego in 2018 the Swedish Hip Arthroplasty Register proposed to the Swedish Knee Arthroplasty Register. After a certain time of deliberation, the discussions about how to make it possible to merge the two oldest arthroplasty registers were initiated. In the autumn 2019 we prepared a project directive and applied for grant from the the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, which was granted. The steering group for the Swedish Arthroplasty Register was formed in January 2020 including representatives from the two registers previous steering groups. During the latter part of 2020 and in 2021 it has been carried out an extensive work to implement the register in practice. In parallel, we have worked with the Swedish Arthroplasty Registers first annual report. September 1st 2021 we opened the entry of hip and knee replacements via the register’s new web site, November 1st the first annual report was published and a short time after, also an English version. There are still some functions to be completed in the close future.

During the work with the annual report, we have put much effort in presenting data from knee and hip replacements as uniformly as possible. We have tried to combine the best from the former Hip and Knee Arthroplasty Registers. However, there are still parts that needs to be harmonized.

We are convinced that the merge will lead to further joint efforts to strengthen the care even more so that the outcome for patients who undergo joint replacement in Sweden also in the future will be of international top-class.