This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Study shows better individual clinical results with THA vs. TKA

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

BERLIN — Using the Repp-factor, or relative effect per person, investigators found better overall clinical results with total hip arthroplasty compared to total knee arthroplasty at 1-year follow-up.

“For me, it is a simple method that works now for total hip replacement [and] total knee replacement. It gives qualitative analysis of your results and also what your patients can expect of the treatment you offer them,” Jörg Huber, MD, from the Orthopedic Clinic at Kantonsspital in Aarau, Switzerland, said in his presentation at the 13th EFORT Congress 2012, here.

Huber and colleagues developed the method to determine the impact of a treatment on an individual rather than a whole cohort of patients. The Repp-factor is calculated by subtracting a preoperative score from the postoperative score and dividing that result by the preoperative score. A good to excellent result would yield a positive number and a bad result would yield a negative number, according to the study abstract. For this study, the investigators used the WOMAC score to determine the Repp-factor.

WOMAC scores for the THA group went from 51 points preoperatively to 13 points postoperatively, while TKA patients displayed a change from 49 points to 20 points, according to the abstract.

Of 170 patients in the study, 80% of those who underwent total hip arthroplasty (THA) had good to excellent results as determined by the method. Eleven percent had moderate results, 6% were unchanged and 3% had worse results. Huber and colleagues saw good to excellent results in 64% of patients who underwent total knee arthroplasty (TKA), according to the presentation. Moderate results were found in 20% of patients who had TKA, 3% had worse results and 13% were unchanged.

Although Huber and colleagues used the WOMAC score in their study to calculate the Repp-factor, he said any pain score — such as the EuroQol or SF-12 scores — can be used. He noted that while surgeons can use the EuroQol score, the WOMAC score allows for better separation of the results to determine the impact of a procedure on an individual.

“The most important thing is that you have a score, which means no symptoms, no disability and the hundred — or maximum — is a positive value. If you have this grade of scaling, this formula works [well],” he said.

Reference:

Huber J, Dabis E, Zumstein M, Huesler J. Total hip replacement gives better clinical results than total knee replacement – Comparison with the Repp-factor (relative effect per person). Paper #12-1173. Presented at the 13th EFORT Congress 2012. May 23-25. Berlin.