An Assessment of Clinical and Functional Outcomes in the Patients Undergoing Total Knee Arthroplasty during Postoperative Period

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background and objective Patient-reported outcome measures continue to play an important role in assessing the performance and determining the comparative effectiveness of total knee arthroplasty. Patient's satisfaction can be influenced by many factors, such as, residual pain, postoperative functionality, and the presence of postoperative complications and hence we evaluated clinical and functional outcomes following total knee arthroplasty. This study was conducted to bust the myth of postoperative pain and disability following a total knee replacement. Materials and methods A prospective observational cohort study was conducted among the patients who underwent primary total knee arthroplasty in the Department of Orthopaedics in the Sundaram Medical Foundation during the study period of March 2017 and January 2018. A total of 30 cases were included. During their follow-up, patient's outcomes were assessed using Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) and American Knee Society Scores (AKSS). Data were analyzed using SPSS v.17. Results At the end of 6 months, 76.7% of participants were satisfied with their outcome. Significant improvement was noted in both clinical (p = 0.000) and functional outcome (p = 0.000) of AKSS and total WOMAC scores (p = 0.007) during the follow-up at the sixth month. Also, there was a significant difference in AKSS scores noted with respect to age but other parameters like duration of illness and type of arthritis were not significant. Conclusion The majority of study subjects were satisfied with the clinical and functional outcome based on WOMAC and AKSS, which in turn encouraged them to undergo total knee replacement of the other knee. Clinical significance From our study, we could determine the importance of patient- and clinician-reported outcome measures in predicting the satisfaction of the patient following total knee replacement. Assessment of a patient planned for total knee replacement, with the outcome scores both preoperatively and postoperatively will give us a brief idea on how better the patient will fair following surgery and will also help us in the rehabilitation of the patient accordingly. How to cite this article Venkatesan AS, Jayasankar P, Williams S. An Assessment of Clinical and Functional Outcomes in the Patients Undergoing Total Knee Arthroplasty during Postoperative Period. J Orth Joint Surg 2020;2(2):57–61.