Introduction

When efforts are made to audit results in medical health care there is often a lack of measures describing the outcome of a certain treatment for the continued function and rehabilitation of the individual in relation to health care consumption. Measures of results and control of productivity comparing larger regions within a country or comparing countries are also lacking. Through uniform follow up of major diseases the efficiency of different hospitals and regions can be evaluated and awareness of treatment results and improvement will be facilitated.

The most resource-consuming groups in orthopaedics are hip fractures and arthroplasties of the hip and the knee. The evaluation of the effectiveness of the treatment is hampered by the lack of control of the treatment provided. To meet these demands orthopaedic audit has been started with prospective multi-centre studies of hip fractures, hip arthroplasties and knee arthroplasties covering all Sweden. The three registers differ in outlines and performance and will therefore be described separately. The hip fracture audit has its focus on the operation, and rehabilitation and resource consumption within the first months after the fracture, whereas the arthroplasty audits concentrate on long-term revisions. These studies have been initiated with the support of the Swedish Orthopaedic Society.