The person with the biggest influence on the outcome of your surgery is your surgeon. They are the team leader and should be both highly skilled, experienced and hopefully are still able to choose your prosthesis.

The choice is difficult to make, but you should aim to choose one with whom you can get along with, who can explain what needs to be done and is happy to discuss his or her results.

We now have objective evidence of the performace of the surgeons team and the prostheses used in the National Joint Registry. From July 2013 some limited data was published publicly, but in orthopaedics the parameter chosen was mortality within 90 days. This is so rare there was not a single out-lying surgeon and is usually due to factors out of the control of the surgeon. (Indeed if you were run over on the road following successful surgery - (that would be counted!)

Much more relevant for hip and knee replacement are the activity data (how many procedures has that surgeon done) and how often, for what ever reason, do those joints fail. This data has not been published yet, but I am able to show you my own data. (see results page)

Personal recommendation is also important and in a region such as Herefordshire and the surrounding counties it is likely that a friend will have been treated by the surgeon you are thinking of using.