Increased Utilization of American Administrative Databases and Large-scale Clinical Registries in Orthopaedic Research, 1996 to 2016.

INTRODUCTION

Administrative databases and clinical registries provide large sample sizes that characterize specific outcomes and trends over time in orthopaedic surgery.

METHODS

A literature review of all English-language orthopaedic surgery journals was conducted. All publications from 1996 to 2016 were reviewed for the utilization of an administrative database or clinical registry. We performed a linear regression with logarithmic transformation to identify trends in database utilization.

RESULTS

Eight hundred forty-nine publications used a database from 1996 to 2016. Each year, 35.3% more database publications are reported than the previous year (95% confidence interval, 30.0 to 40.7), from zero articles in 1996 to 286 in 2016. The ratio of database research publications to overall orthopaedic publications increased from zero in 1996 to 2% in 2016. The most commonly used databases included the National Inpatient Sample and the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program.

CONCLUSION

Database research in orthopaedics has grown at a faster rate than orthopaedic literature as a whole.