PHILADELPHIA -- Declining rates of major joint surgery appear to be the result of improving medical treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, researchers suggested here.
"We discovered that patients with RA, particularly those of younger age, are having fewer common joint replacement surgeries now than over the previous decade or so," said Grant H. Louie, MD, the Lawrence E. Shulman Scholar at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, Bethesda, Md.
Among patients ages 40 to 59, for example, rates of total knee arthroplasty in 2003-2007 were 19% lower than in 1983-1987 (adjusted rate ratio 0.81, 95% CI 0.74 to 0.87, P<0.0001). Rates of total hip arthroplasty in 2003-2007 were 40% lower than in 1983-1987 (adjusted rate ratio 0.60, 95% CI 0.54 to 0.66, P<0.0001), he said.
"Although the precise reasons for this finding are not entirely certain, we hypothesize that recent advances in treatment of this physically disabling disease may play a role," he said here at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Rheumatology.
He cited the availability of more effective and safer medications that specifically target the drivers of inflammation, along with efforts to identify and treat the disease earlier in its course.
"Time will tell," he said, "but I am cautiously optimistic that the trends we are seeing now may very well continue in the years ahead."
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Rheumatology/Lupus/16566I hope the insurance companies will take note of this and stop denying biologics to people!