COMPARISON OF PREOPERATIVE HEALTH STATUS IN PATIENTS UNDERGOING ANKLE, HIP OR KNEE ARTHROPLASTY

Abstract

Introduction: There is relatively little known about patient-reported health status in patients with ankle arthritis awaiting arthroplasty. This study aims to compare the preoperative health status of patients awaiting ankle, hip and knee arthroplasty.

Materials and Methods: Patients admitted for primary ankle, hip or knee arthroplasty to an NHS teaching hospital were invited to participate. Preoperative questionnaire included the WOMAC, SF-36 and self-reported height and weight providing body mass index (BMI). Comparisons of WOMAC and SF-36 data were adjusted for age, gender and BMI.

Results: A total of 2,196 patients were recruited between July 2003 and May 2007; including 35 ankle arthroplasty (TAA), 899 hip arthroplasty (THA) and 1,262 total arthroplasty (TKA) cases. There was no significant difference in age across the 3 groups but a significantly higher proportion of TAA patients were male (69 percent vs. 38 percent for THA and 43 percent for TKA, p=0.0002). BMI of the TKA patients was significantly higher than the THA patients (29.4 vs. 27.3, p< 0.0001). Multivariate analysis which adjusted for age, gender and BMI demonstrated that THA patients were significantly worse (p< 0.05) than the TKA patients on all domains except for WOMAC stiffness and the SF-36 general health and mental health domains. TAA patients were not significantly different from either group on any measure.

Conclusions: Patients awaiting TAA reported similar WOMAC and SF-36 scores as the TKA patients. Patients awaiting THA report worse pain and function related to their hip and worse SF-36 scores except for general health and mental health domains.