[Annual trends in knee and hip arthroplasty in rheumatoid arthritis 1998-2007]

Abstract

Objective: To determine the annual number and trend of prostheses implanted in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) at our hospital during the past decade.

Materials and methods: Retrospective observational study. Patients were collected through an extensive search of the database of the Clinical Documentation Service between 1998 and 2007. The data was extracted from medical records using a predesigned questionnaire. Statistical analysis of longitudinal prostheses was made by Cochrane's Q test and the Kaplan-Meier method.

Results: Sixty-one RA patients were operated on with 78 prostheses as a direct result of their disease at our hospital between 1998 and 2007. Most were women (80%) with positive rheumatoid factor (84%). The mean age was 58 years, and the average time since onset of RA was 13 years. All but one had previously received antirheumatic drugs (88% methotrexate), but only 11% had biological therapy. No changes were observed in the number of arthroplasties as a whole over a decade, although there was a trend towards reduction in the number of patients that required a knee replacement for the first time (Cochrane Q, P=0.05).

Conclusion: We observed no significant changes in trends in the number of new joint replacement procedures as a whole in the past decade at our hospital, although the number of patients that required knee replacement for the first time as a direct result of their underlying disease seems to have declined in the last decade.