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Pain after TKA does not impact pain in a patient’s unoperated knee: study
Researchers from the United Kingdom concluded that increased pain after total knee arthroplasty did not correlate with increased knee pain in the patient’s unoperated contralateral knee at short-term follow-up.
“We failed to find evidence that poor postoperative outcome in terms of pain in the index knee was associated with greater worsening of pain in the contralateral knee over a 2-year period,” Hannah K. Smith, MBChB (Hons), MRCS, and colleagues wrote in the study.
Smith and colleagues followed the WOMAC pain scores of 772 patients who underwent total knee arthroplasty (TKA) with the Kinemax prosthesis (Stryker Howmedica; Mahwah, N.J.). At 24 months postoperatively, 508 patients were available for follow up.
While the patients had improved pain scores for the first 3 months after TKA, their pain scores in the contralateral knee worsened at a rate of 3.5 points per year. Smith and colleagues reported this occurrence was not a result of pain in the operated knee, according to the abstract.
“This observation is clinically important as persistent pain after total knee arthroplasty is distressing for patients,” Smith and colleagues wrote.
Disclosure: One author’s (Lingard) institution receives funding from Stryker Howmedica to undertake the Kinemax Outcomes Study.