Abstract
Introduction
Patients undergoing TJA have higher rates of anxiety and/or depression than the general population and higher costs of care. These preoperative diagnoses lead to higher levels of postoperative dissatisfaction and depression patients alone have higher readmission rates. There is significant crossover between anxiety and depressive disorders, and many patients are classed as combined. Our goal was to evaluate readmission rates of patients undergoing total hip or knee arthroplasty with diagnoses of anxiety, depression or both.
Methods
Our hospital's prospectively collected data from our statewide total joint database (MARCQI) was reviewed from 2013–2018. Rates of anxiety and/or depression were determined based preoperative anxiolytic or antidepressant medications using national drug codes. Independent sample t-tests compared continuous variables and Chi-square tests (or Fisher's exact tests) compared categorical variables. Potential risk factors were identified by multivariable logistic regression modeling.
Results
4,107 cases (1,261 THA and 2,846 TKA) were included. 176 patients (4.28%) had a readmission within the 90-day global period. 476 patients (12%) had history of depression or anxiety or both. For the entire cohort, those on anxiolytic medication were 153% more likely to be readmitted than those not on medication (p=0.017). When patients were stratified based on THA or TKA, patients taking anxiolytic medication undergoing TKA were 120% more likely to undergo readmission within 90 days (p=0.021). Patients on depression medication alone were not at increased risk of readmission in the TKA cohort (p=0.991). For THA patients neither diagnosis appeared a risk factor for readmission (p=0.852).
Conclusions
Patients with depression, anxiety, or both undergoing TKA were at a statistically significant risk of readmission within 90-days compared to patients without these diagnoses. Anxiety and depression were both risk factors for readmission, but anxiety appeared to have a more significant impact. THA on the other hand did not appear to share this risk profile.
