Factors associated with disease activity after orthopaedic surgery in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Objective: This study evaluated the effect of surgical intervention on disease activity and factors associated with postoperative disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).Methods: One hundred and seventy-five patients with RA who underwent a single orthopaedic surgical procedure with 1 year of follow-up were retrospectively reviewed to assess postoperative changes in disease activity using disease activity score in 28 Joints calculated with C-reactive protein (DAS28-CRP). European League against Rheumatology (EULAR) response criteria were used to assess the response to surgical intervention.Results: Overall disease activity was significantly improved after surgery. Therapeutic regimens including biological/targeted-synthetic (b/ts) disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), methotrexate (MTX), and prednisolone (PSL) were not significantly changed 1 year after surgery. Shorter disease duration, surgery of large joints, higher baseline DAS28-CRP, and no use of b/tsDMARDs affected postoperative improvement of disease activity. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that large joint surgery and no preoperative use of b/tsDMARDs were independent factors leading to good response to EULAR criteria after surgery (OR = 2.70; 95% CI, 1.03-7.06; p < .05, OR = 4.09; 95% CI, 1.50-11.14; p < .01, respectively).Conclusion: Significant improvement of disease activity after surgical intervention may be expected in patients with RA with large joint surgeries or no preoperative use of b/tsDMARDs.