Newly implanted artificial knee joints should give patients at least 15 to 20 years of pain-free mobility. Unfortunately, in an average of 3.4 per cent of cases, the first operation is not successful in the long term. In these patients, a second operation (knee joint revision) is necessary within two years. The reasons for this are usually patella problems, instability or post-operative infections. Re-operations should be avoided if possible, as they are much less likely to be successful.
The proportion of such premature reoperations - and thus the risk for the patient of having one - is not the same at all hospitals. If you need an artificial knee joint, you may therefore find it advantageous to consider the 2-year re-operation rates when choosing your hospital.
In order to determine the hospital- or clinic-specific reoperation rates, knee surgery patients in Switzerland were observed over several years. The figures from this nationwide implant register can be considered very reliable. Almost all knee prosthesis operations performed in Switzerland (about 15'000 artificial knee joints per year) have been recorded. Informative data are available for 118 hospitals and clinics and 51'989 knee prosthesis operations.
Particularly relevant for patients is that eight hospitals/clinics show significantly 
better results, i.e. fewer 2-year reoperations (green «scores» in the best list). The Schulthess Klinik in Zurich is even highly significantly better, with an impressively low re-operation rate of 1.4% for around 560 cases per year.
Significantly worse results, i.e. more frequent re-operations had to be found at thirteen hospitals (red «scores» in the best list). Unfortunately, three hospitals stand out even with highly significant worse results. These are the Clinique CIC Montreux in Clarens, the Bruderholzspital (Kantonsspital Baselland) and the Asana Spital Leuggern in Leuggern The 2-year reoperation risk in these hospitals is many times higher than in the best hospitals.
5.0
5.0
4.9
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4.8
4.8
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4.0
3.9
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1.7
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1.0
1.0
1.0
0.9
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Mesuré en tant que taux de réopération ajusté au risque pour les premières implantations d'endoprothèses (hanche artificielle, genou artificiel) dans les deux ans - par hôpital.