Insertions of primary knee prostheses – contacts per 1,000 inhabitants, 50 years and older
For patients aged 50 and older, 7,503 knee prostheses were inserted in 2022, increasing to 8,562 in 2024. This corresponds to a 14% increase. There was a small decline in the number of surgeries in the pandemic year 2020. After the pandemic, the level is higher than before. The figures include both total and partial prostheses. The proportion of partial prostheses has shown a steady increase over time, rising from 12% in 2015 to 18% in 2024.
There is geographical variation in surgery rates. In the catchment areas with the highest rates, more than twice as many surgeries per 1,000 inhabitants are performed compared with the areas with the lowest rates. In 2024, the rate ranged from 2.4 in the Lovisenberg catchment area to 5.3 in Førde. The ratio between total and partial prostheses varies considerably between the different catchment areas. In 2024, the share receiving a partial prosthesis ranged from just under 6% in Helgeland to nearly 34% in UNN.
Women undergo surgery to a greater extent than men, and 57% of the surgeries in 2024 were performed on women. The average age among operated patients aged 50 and older was roughly the same for both sexes in 2024, at around 70 years.
The analysis is based on activity data from the Norwegian Patient Register (NPR) for somatic specialist healthcare services. The data includes activities in public hospitals and private hospitals providing publicly funded services.
The selection includes contacts registered with one or more of the following six procedure codes::
The place of treatment is divided into three categories:
Knee prosthesis insertion is mainly performed on adult patients. The population therefore includes only patients aged 50 years and older. In 2024, 181 operations were performed on patients under 50 years of age, of whom 162 were between 40 and 49 years old.
In order to compare the catchment areas and between years, the rates have been adjusted for gender and age. The adjustment was done using the direct method with the countrys population in 2023 as the reference population.
In graphs with patient‑aggregated data, the numbers are adjusted to avoid double‑counting patients. The actual number of patients is therefore higher when looking at a single variable for a focus area. For example, patients who have received both private and public treatment during a year are counted only once in total, which means that the number of patients in private treatment will be underreported.
SKDE is solely responsible for the interpretation and presentation of the data provided by NPR. FHI/NPR is not responsible for analyses or interpretations based on the data.
All of the data used in the charts for this analysis can be downloaded as a JSON file.
