Materials and Methods
Anonymous printed questionnaires were given to all orthopaedic surgeons who attended the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) held in San Diego, in February 2011 and the annual meeting of the European Federation of National Association of Orthopaedic and Trauma (EFFORT) held in Copenhagen, in June 2011. The aim was to obtain a cross-section of subspecialities to assess orthopaedic surgeons' perceptions as a whole. Orthopaedic surgeons attending these meetings received a printed questionnaire and were asked to answer a Yes or No question regarding whether they recommend knee arthroscopy for knee OA. Physicians who agreed to participate also were asked to provide information regarding the country of origin, field of subspecialty, number of years of experience, and status (senior surgeon, fellow, or resident). An estimated number of 400 questionnaires were given, with 279 (70%) being returned within the conference period.
Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS package version 17 (SPSS, Chicago, IL).
Statistical significance was calculated using the Chi Square test. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.