The National Institutes of Health (NIH) consensus development program will hold a consensus development conference on total knee replacement December 8-10, 2003 at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland.

Each year, approximately 300,000 total knee replacement (TKR) surgeries are performed in the United States for severe arthritis of the knee joint. As the number of TKR surgeries performed each year increases and the indications for TKR extend to younger patients, a review of available scientific information is necessary to enhance clinical decision making and stimulate further research.

The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and the National Institutes of Health Office of Medical Applications of Research are sponsoring a consensus development conference to explore and assess the current scientific knowledge regarding TKR. Specifically, the conference will address the following key questions:
1.What are the current indications and outcomes for primary TKR?
2. How do specific characteristics of the patient, material and design of the prosthesis, and surgical factors affect the short-term and long-term outcomes of primary TKR?
3. Are there important preoperative interventions that influence outcomes?
4. What are the indications, approaches, and outcomes for revision TKR?
5. What factors explain disparities in the utilization of TKR in different populations?
6. What are the directions for future research?

During the first day and part of the second day of the conference, experts will present the latest TKR research findings to the independent consensus panel. After weighing all of the scientific evidence, the panel will draft a statement addressing the questions listed above.

The panel will consider an evidence report on this topic, prepared by the Minnesota Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC), Minneapolis, Minnesota, under contract to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

The consensus statement is the report of an independent panel and is not a policy statement of the NIH or the federal government. The NIH Consensus Development Program was established in 1977 to resolve in an unbiased manner controversial topics in medicine. To date, NIH has conducted 116 consensus development conferences addressing a wide range of medical issues of importance to health care providers, patients, and the general public.