PURPOUSE OF THE STUDY: Wound drainage in surgical interventions has a long tradition. Regarding the primary TKA there are no valid data concerning the ideal point of time for removal. The objective of this prospective randomized study was to investigate which drainage procedure should be given preference with regard to wound healing, blood loss, development of intraarticular hematomas and early postoperative function.
Material and methods: We documented the ROM, the knee circumference at the upper patellar pole preoperatively and on days 2, 4 and 6 postoperatively. The blood volume and loss was calculated. As surrogate parameter for wound healing we counted the amount of days until no residual secretion was observed via the wound/drainage site.
Results: The results of our investigation do not show any significant difference with regard to the mentioned parameters.
Conclusions: In our investigation, we were unable to find any significant advantage of intraarticular drainage for 48 hours over 24 hours after primary total knee arthroplasty. After uncomplicated total knee arthroplasty we recommend removing drainage after 24 hours.