Several national studies have shown that the rates of joint replacement are rising and this increase may be greater than that expected by population ageing. The aim of this study was to assess local rates of joint replacement at a district general hospital (DGH) and to investigate whether there had been a change in pre-operative functional status of patients over the study period to account for any change in rates of arthroplasty. This was a DGH based local joint registry programme with independent functional assessment and follow up. All patients undergoing primary total hip replacement (THR) and total knee replacement(TKR) between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2009 were eligible. Only after being listed for surgery were patients assessed with WOMAC and Oxford Hip or Oxford Knee scores. Catchment population data was obtained from the Office of National StatisticsAims
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