Obesity Severity Predicts Patient Dissatisfaction After Total Knee Arthroplasty

Patient dissatisfaction has been reported in 15 to 20% of traditional total knee arthroplasty (TKA) procedures. While contemporary improvements may have positive effects on patient satisfaction, these may be offset by increasing obesity prevalence among patients who have knee osteoarthritis. We performed this study to determine whether obesity severity impacts patient-reported TKA satisfaction.

We compared patient demographic characteristics, preoperative expectations, preoperative and minimum 1-year postoperative patient-reported outcome measures as well as postoperative satisfaction level among 229 patients (243 TKAs) who had World Health Organization (WHO) Class II or III obesity (group A), and 287 patients (328 TKAs) who had WHO classifications of normal weight, overweight, or Class I obesity (group B).

Group A patients were younger and had more severe preoperative back and contralateral knee pain, more frequent preoperative opioid medication use, and lower preoperative and postoperative patient-reported outcome measures (P < .01). A similar proportion of patients in both groups expected at least 75% improvement (68.5 versus 73.2%, P = .27). While satisfaction was higher than traditional reporting for both groups (89.4 versus 92.6%, P = .19), group A patients were less likely to be highly satisfied (68.1 versus 78.5%, P = .04) and were more likely to be highly dissatisfied (5.1 versus 0.9%, P < .01).

Patients who have Class II and III obesity report greater TKA dissatisfaction. Additional studies should help determine whether specific implant designs or surgical techniques may improve patient satisfaction or whether preoperative counseling should incorporate lower satisfaction expectations for patients who have WHO Class II or III obesity.