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Study: Preoperative contralateral knee pain predicts postoperative function
Pain in the contralateral knee prior to knee arthroplasty was significantly related to the level of pain experienced after the surgery, according to data from the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study.
“Preoperative pain in the contralateral knee is strongly associated with self-reported post-arthroplasty functional outcome and may therefore be a useful indicator of prognosis or a potential target of perioperative intervention,” Jasvinder A. Singh, MBBS, MPH, and colleagues wrote in the study abstract.
Singh and colleagues analyzed 271 patients who underwent knee arthroplasty shortly after enrolling in the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study. In the study, preoperative WOMAC scores for the contralateral knee were analyzed and pain 6 months postoperatively was assessed using the Patient Acceptable Symptom State (PASS) tool, according to the abstract.
The researchers found poor postoperative function in patients with contralateral knee pain, and the severity of preoperative pain was associated with worse function. Patients with the highest severity of pain were 4.1 times more likely to self-report worse outcomes than patients without preoperative contralateral knee pain, according to the abstract.
Overall, 27% of patients did not obtain sufficient a PASS score and had poor postoperative function, while 30% of patients had a slow walking speed. The researchers noted patients who underwent bilateral knee arthroplasty were less likely to self-report poor function than patients who had unilateral knee arthroplasty.
Disclosure: One author’s (Maxwell) institution received funds from the American College of Rheumatology during the study period. The authors received funds from National Institutes of Health and National Institute on Aging to conduct this study.