Trends in hospitalization for pediatric hip arthroplasty: an epidemiological Nationwide study in Italy from 2001 to 2015

BACKGROUND: The epidemiology of Pediatric Hip Arthroplasty (PHA) is unclear. Prevalence of PHA in Europe was reported in Scandinavian registries, but data on this procedure are not described in other countries. Therefore, it is challenging to redact a complete and valid epidemiological report on PHA in Europe. Nevertheless, national health statistics for PHA are helpful for an international audience, as different treatments are reported between countries. Moreover, sharing national statistics and correlating those to other countries’ protocols could be helpful to compare outcomes for different procedures internationally. The principal purpose is to evaluate the yearly hospital admission for PHA in Italy. METHODS: Data of this study were collected from the National Hospital Discharge Reports (SDO) reported at the Italian Ministry of Health. RESULTS: From 2001 to 2015, 770 PHA hospitalizations were performed in Italy, with an incidence of 0.5 procedures for every 100,000 pediatric Italian inhabitants. The average age of patients was 15.2 ± 4.6 years. The mean length of days of hospitalization was 10.9 ± 8.6 days. The majority of patients were male of 15–19 years old age group. A progressive decrease in days of hospitalizations was found during the years of the study. CONCLUSIONS: In Europe, the incidence of hospital admission for PHA is not fully described. There is a lack of consensus on the best type of surgery to perform on young patients. Epidemiological studies are helpful to understand the national variation of a specific surgical procedure and compare them with other countries.