Cost of a Total Knee Replacement

[Ken]

After more than 20 years of pain after a severe skiing accident tore up her knee, Barbara had a total knee replacement this past week. The surgery was done at Clinica Abreu in Santo Domingo and the surgeon was Dr. Richard Domino, for my money the best orthopedic surgeon in the DR.

Since there was some interest on the board when I posted the cost of Barbara's hip replacement last year, I thought I would post the knee replacement figures.

1. Hospital charges (Clinica Abreu for period October 4-10: RD$99,595.36. This figure would be about RD$2,000 per day less if we could have gotten a semi-private room, however, due to the severe virus and dengue, all the semi-private rooms were occupied.

2. The prosthesis (state of the art): RD$84,375.

3. Charges for surgeon, assistant, and anesthetist: RD$190,000

This totals RD$373,970.36 or US$11,247 using an exchange rate of 33.25 to 1.

This is quite a bit more than the cost of her hip replacement, but my impression is that this was a more difficult operation. She was on the table longer and in recovery longer than with the hip.

They gave her a spinal so she was awake during the operation. She says there was an awful lot of pulling, pushing and pounding during the operation.

[AnnaC]

Give Babara my best wishes for a speedy recovery Ken.

Where you covered by insurance?

[Ken]

Anna, should get most of it, though not more for the room than the charge for semi-private.

Doing fine so far. Thanks .

[boca chica dave]

Hope your wife has a quick recovery. My aunt had to hips done and have several friends that have had their knees done. The noise and tools in the operating room are somewhat simliar to a wood shop. i think the biggest concern with these ops. is the handling of anethesia.

[HOWMAR]

i think the biggest concern with these ops. is the handling of anethesia.

With the relative safety of modern anesthesia, actually the biggest concern in any orthopedic implant surgery is infection. In most cases where an inplant site becomes infected, it requires the removal of the implant and in many cases a subsequent fusion of the joint.
Most US hospitals have a seperate, dedicated operating room for implant surgery which has laminar air scrubbers and the complete staff are required to wear what look like space suits that prevents them from contaminating the room air. Even with such extensive measures, most major centers hope to achieve a 2-3% infection rate.

[Ken]

They don't have dedicated operating rooms,etc., in the DR. What they do is keep the patient on intravenous the entire time he is in the hospital so that they can continually administer antibiotics, then after leaving hospital they get a daily injection in the stomach of an antibiotic.

[A.Hidalgo]

I hope your wife recovers soon. Question did they recommend a Continuous Passive Motion machine for her?

[Ken]

Thanks, A Hidalgo. For first 2 weeks the therapist is going to the small hotel near the hospital where my wife is staying. After that she goes to the therapy center that the surgeon has in his office. Don't know yet what machines are there, though I know there are some.

[A.Hidalgo]

Ken the link will explain what a CPM machine is. I realize that its the DR and they might not have these rehab machines. I work for a company that makes them.

CONTINUOUS PASSIVE MOTION

[Robert]

Glad to her the wife is on the mend

If you need anything whilst in Santo Domingo, please send me a PM.