E! Science News

Knee replacement may lower a patient's risk for mortality and heart failure

New research presented at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) highlights the benefits of total knee replacement (TKR) in elderly patients with osteoarthritis, including a lower probability of heart failure and mortality.

There were significant positives in the osteoarthritis TKR group: the risk of mortality was half that of the non-TKR group and the congestive heart failure rate also was lower, at three, five and seven years after surgery. There was no difference in diabetes rates among both groups. Depression rates were slightly higher in the TKR group during the first three years after surgery, though there was no difference at five and seven years.

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2 knee replacements may be better than

"Our study found that the risk of developing a serious joint infection that required an additional knee revision surgery was two times higher in patients who had staged knee replacements compared to the patients who had both knees replaced at the same time (2.2 percent after staged knee replacements and 1.2 percent after bilateral knee replacements)," said John P. Meehan, MD, study author and orthopaedic surgeon from the University of California, Davis.

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