Balasubramanian S,
BACKGROUND
Pain, functional limitations, and impaired health related quality of life, are key concerns for individuals with advanced osteoarthritis of the knee. Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) is the primary treatment for patients with end stage arthritis. Despite being a common intervention associated with generally favourable outcomes,1 a large proportion of individuals do not have expected outcomes following TKA.2 So, the present study was conducted to evaluate functional outcome following primary TKA in an institute which caters to rural and semi urban population with limited financial provisions.
METHODS
This is a prospective study of 41 cases (60 knees) who underwent TKA at Rajarajeswari Medical College & Hospital, Bangalore, between November 2017 and October 2019. Cases were selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Patients were evaluated using Knee Society Score at regular follow up. In our study, we had 28 female patients and 13 male patients. Indications were Osteoarthritis (OA) in 47, Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) in 11 and Other Conditions of Arthritis (OCA) in 2 knees. The average follow-up period was 10.6 weeks.
RESULTS
In our study, pre-operatively all of our patients had moderate to severe pain, post- operatively 24 knees had no pain and 36 knees had mild pain. Pre-operative average flexion of 76? was increased to 95.8? post-operatively. All the 60 knees had poor knee score of < 60 pre-operatively, post-operatively 42 knees had excellent score (80-100) and 17 knees with good score (70-79). 38 patients had poor functional score (< 60) and 3 patients had fair functional score (60-69) pre-operatively. Post-operatively 21 patients had excellent score (80-100), 11 patients had good score (70-79), 6 patients had fair score (60-69) and 3 patients had poor score (< 60).
CONCLUSIONS
TKA is now a common and established surgical procedure. Functional outcome of the procedure is dramatic, durable, and satisfactory with high patient acceptance.
