Aversion to Total Joint Arthroplasty: Functional Scores Predict Patient Preferences

Many patients who may benefit from total hip arthroplasty and total knee arthroplasty prefer to avoid surgery. Reasons for avoidance may include, but are not limited to, experience or dissatisfaction with prior treatment, living status, and symptom severity. Taking these variables into account, the authors sought to determine whether preoperatively collected functional scores would predict an aversion to total joint arthroplasty. A prospective cross-sectional survey was administered to consecutive patients during a 5-month period at the initial consultation for osteoarthritis of the hip or knee. Patient demographics, Hip disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (HOOS), Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), Veterans RAND 12-Item Health Survey (VR-12) score, radiographic findings, and preference for or against surgical treatment for osteoarthritis were collected. Logistic regression was performed to determine factors associated with aversion to total joint arthroplasty, and receiver operating characteristic curves were used to determine an appropriate functional score cutoff associated with aversion to surgery. Twenty-two of 103 total patients (21.4%) were averse to surgery. The proportion of patients who underwent surgery was significantly smaller for those averse compared with those not averse to surgery (4.6% vs 23.5%, P<.05). Baseline characteristics, including age, radiographic scores, satisfaction with prior treatment, work status, education, living status, and VR-12 scores were similar between the groups. Functional scores were significantly higher for averse patients (KOOS, 66.6 vs 50.6, P<.001; HOOS, 73.2 vs 62.2, P<.05). Univariate logistic regression revealed a significant association between functional scores and aversion. Optimal cutoff values for all patients overall were 57.1 and 58.9, with an area under the curve of 0.73 and 0.68, for KOOS and HOOS, respectively. Initial aversion was a strong predictor of the ultimate method of treatment chosen. When controlling for other clinically important baseline characteristics, prospectively collected functional scores may be useful in predicting surgical aversion. [Orthopedics. 2020;43(3):147-153.].