Perioperative morbidity in total knee arthroplasty

As the life expectancy and weight of patients are increasing, more old and obese patients are undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA). TKA may lead to several perioperative complications. These include anesthesia-related risks, exacerbation of comorbid medical issues and complications of surgical procedure. We have no studies reporting medical complications following TKA among our population. This study aimed to evaluate perioperative complications of TKA and to identify the related risk factors.

It was a monocentric retrospective including 410 observations in the local TKA registry. Data of patients operated for primary unilateral TKA during the period from January 2014 to December 2017 were reviewed. All patients had standardized protocols of anesthesia and post operative care for three days following surgery. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify the predicting factors for complications.

Incidence of perioperative complications was 37.1%. The most frequent were per operative hypotension (14.1%) and postoperative desaturation (21.7%, including pulmonary embolism in 2.4%). Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified: age ≥ 65 years (OR=1.9; p=0.006), respiratory diseases (OR=1.8; p=0.042) and general anesthesia (OR=2.8; p=0.009) as significant risk factors for any complications. Loss of autonomy (OR=4.8; p <0.001) and general anesthesia (OR=2.6; p=0.03) were significant risk factors for hypotension. Age ≥ 65 years (OR=2.6;p<0.001), female gender (OR=4.3;p=0.006) and respiratory diseases(OR=1.9;p=0.02) were associated with postoperative desaturation.

This study highlighted hemodynamic and respiratory complications as the most common early complications in TKA. Age ≥ 65years, general anesthesia and respiratory diseases were significant risk factors.