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Many knee and hip replacement patients experience weight decrease after surgery
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A Mount Sinai School of Medicine study has found that patients often exhibit a significant decrease in weight and body mass index after undergoing knee or hip replacement surgery (arthroplasty). The study is the first of its type to correct for the annual increase in body mass index typically found in North Americans between the ages of 29 to 73 years.
The study was recently published in the June issue of Orthopedics.
A total of 196 Mount Sinai patients who had knee or hip replacement from 2005 to 2007 for treatment of osteoarthritis (OA) were randomly selected for the study. Mean patient age at surgery was 67.56 years, with about 65% of the patients being women. Overall, 19.9% demonstrated a clinically significant decrease in weight — defined as the loss of 5% or more of body weight — and body mass index (BMI) following their knee or hip replacement. In addition, the mean weight of the group dropped from 175.47 lbs. to 172.24 lbs. after surgery.
Healthier lifestyles
Significant BMI decrease was found to be greater in knee replacement patients, 21.5%, than hip replacement patients, 16.9%. Patients who were obese prior to surgery, with BMI greater than 30, were the most likely to experience significant post-surgery weight reductions, the investigators reported.
"Total joint arthroplasties are performed with the intent of relieving a patient's pain and disability," lead author Michael Bronson, MD, chief of joint replacement surgery at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, stated in a Mt. Sinai press release. "Both total knee patients and total hip patients experienced a statistically significant and clinically significant corrected weight loss following surgery, which indicates a healthier overall lifestyle."
The incidence of overweight and obese adults has been steadily increasing over the past 5 decades in the United States, according to the release. Lifestyle modification, consisting of changes in patterns of dietary intake, exercise, and other behaviors, is considered the cornerstone of overweight and obesity management. Overweight patients often argue that their OA limits their mobility and ability to exercise. Thus, patients may feel frustrated that they are unable to lose weight, and are often hopeful that losing weight would be easier postoperatively.
These results suggest that patients have improved weight parameters when compared to North American adults. Bronson and his joint replacement team at Mount Sinai said that additional studies of total knee and total hip arthroplasty postoperative patients, which also incorporate nutritional guidance and long-term fitness goals, may show even more encouraging results.
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