The Register of Orthopaedic Prosthetic Implants (R.I.P.O) was established at the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institutes in 1990. All the Orthopaedic Units in the Emilia-Romagna region (approx. 4 millions inhabitants) joined it from January 2000.

By December 31st, 2023 the Register collected data of nearly:

• 165.000 total hip-replacement, 22.100 hip revisions and 54.000 hemiarthoplasties;
• 148.000 knee replacements, 10.5000 knee revisions;
• 13.000 shoulder replacements.

More than 95% of surgeries performed in the Emilia-Romagna region are reported to RIPO, ensuring the reliability of the data analysis.

The collected variables are: side of surgery, reasons for revision hip, knee and shoulder prosthesis surgery, surgical procedure, complications during hospitalization, commercial type, reference code, and batch number of each single implanted component. 

The end-point is the revision of even a single component of the prosthesis.

More than 100 different types of commercial hip prostheses and 90 knee prostheses are monitored to evaluate their outcomes.

The register co-operates with the orthopaedic surgeons and the regional authorities to define observational studies and to evaluate joint prostheses or innovative techniques. Moreover, the Register is able to identify in real-time the patients on whom a certain joint prosthesis was implanted. Those at risk of early failure based on recalls made by the Ministry of Health or manufacturers can thus be identified. At this point, orthopaedic surgeons may be in the position to promptly adopt all the necessary measures to defend the health of the patient.

The Register is funded by the Assessorship for Health and Social Politics of the Emilia-Romagna region.

The R.E.P.O. (Register of Orthopaedic Prosthetic Explants) management activity consists of the collection, classification, and analysis of medical devices explanted at the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute.

During 18 years of activity, more than 4.000 devices have been collected, mostly hip and knee prostheses. Devices involved in reported accidents are available to legal authorities, manufacturers and patients according to the internal procedure.

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