site.bta13,000 Joint Replacement Surgeries Performed in Bulgaria Every Year

“A total of 13,000 joint replacement surgeries are performed in Bulgaria every year,” Sofia Medical University’s Orthopedics and Traumatology Department Head Plamen Kinov said here Wednesday during a BTA-hosted news conference of a newly-established non-profit orthopaedic foundation.

He added that one in ten people will suffer a hip fracture in their lifetime, which requires prostheses, with women being at higher risk of joint replacement.

“There are over 800 orthopedic physicians in Bulgaria, which is comparable to other European countries,” Kinov noted.

It transpired at the news conference that orthopedic physicians and traumatologists are establishing an Orthopaedic Research and Training Foundation (ORTF), which will be headed by Kinov. The Foundation will be tasked with working on various projects. One of the projects will organize an educational certificate course for graduate students, junior physicians, and specialist in orthopedics. Another project will create a patient registry which will be used to measure the performance of orthopedic surgery facilities.

“Results can be improved after they have been measured,” Slaveyko Djambazov, a member of the ORTF and founder of the NGO Future Values said. According to him, the registry will also include patients who will answer standardized questionnaire aimed at tracking their quality of life after a knee or hip replacement.