Background Diabetes affects approximately 536.6 million adults worldwide and 32.2 million in the United States. Prior studies across multiple specialties have reported the presence of diabetes is associated with adverse outcomes following surgical operations. While several studies have identified diabetes as a risk factor for adverse outcomes following ACL reconstruction (ACLR), literature evaluating the relationship between diabetes status and outcomes after ACLR is lacking. Purpose We aimed to study surgical outcomes following primary ACLR among patients with diabetes compared to those without diabetes. Study Design Retrospective Cohort Study Methods We conducted a cohort study using data from an integrated healthcare system’s ACLR registry. Patients aged ≥12 receiving a primary unilateral ACLR were included (2005–2020). Preoperative diabetes status was the exposure of interest. The two primary outcomes were revision surgery and ipsilateral reoperation following primary ACLR, modeled using multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression that followed patients until an adverse event or loss to follow up. We also examined hospital readmission within 90 days post-surgery, modeled using logistic regression. All models compared patients with diabetes to those without diabetes, adjusting for age, gender, race, smoking status, body mass index, American Society of Anesthesiologist’s score, comorbid conditions, education level, income level, exercise, and graft type. Results There were 18,797 primary ACLR in the study sample with 383 (2.0%) occurring in patients with diabetes. The diabetes group exercised about 90 minutes less per week than the non-diabetes group. In unadjusted bivariate descriptive analyses, patients with diabetes had a lower rate of revision surgery (1.6% vs. 3.6%, p = 0.037) but a higher rate of ipsilateral reoperation (10.7% vs. 8.0%, p = 0.051). The 90-day readmission rate was higher among patients with diabetes compared to those without diabetes (1.8% vs. 0.7%, p = 0.016). However, after adjusting for covariates, these associations were no longer statistically significant. Conclusion After controlling for patient characteristics and other risk factors, the presence of diabetes was not associated with a higher risk of adverse events following primary ACLR.
Read full abstract