[The Norwegian Cruciate Ligament Registry has a high degree of completeness]

Abstract

Background: In 2010 the Norwegian Cruciate Ligament Registry (NCLR) achieved status as a national medical quality registry. The study aimed at evaluating completeness of reporting on anterior cruciate ligament surgery to NCLF as compared to the Surgical Logbooks-Electronic Patient Journal (SL-EPJ) and the Norwegian Patient Registry (NPR).

Material and methods: Data were obtained electronically, by telephone or by manual counting from NCLR, SL-EPJ and NPR for 14 randomly selected hospitals in Norway for the period 01.10.05-28.02.06. SL-EPJ in hospitals were used as the gold standard.

Results: According SL-EPJ, 202 operations were recorded in the study period. Among these operations seven were missing in NCLR and 21 in NPR. One private hospital only reported to NCLR and not to NPR in the study period, and according to SL-EPJ this hospital performed 19 of the 21 operations missing in NPR. Exclusion of this hospital leads to a high degree of completeness in both NCLR (97 %) and NPR (99 %) as compared to the gold standard.

Interpretation: The result confirms that NCLR has a high degree of registration completeness two years after establishment, and that data from the registry can be used in future research.