Patients lose weight after total knee arthroplasty: myth or reality?

Written By : Dr Supreeth D R |Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli Published On 2022-07-27T10:00:26+05:30 | Updated On 27 July 2022 2:54 PM IST

Barcelona, Spain: Obesity is one of most discussed factors when assessing prosthetic knee surgery outcomes. Prior to the procedure, most patients perceive that their excessive weight is secondary to the low level of activity due to limiting knee pain.

Alexandre Coelho et al conducted a study to assess whether patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA) lose weight after the procedure. The secondary objective was to correlate weight loss with post-operative knee function. The authors found that - patients who undergo TKA do not lose weight one year after surgery. When correlating weight loss with post operative outcomes, no differences were observed between groups.

A prospective observational study was designed including 247 patients who undergone TKA. A significant change in weight was considered anything above or below 5% of the pre-operative weight. Three groups were established based on a change in weight: loss of more than 5%, those who did not pass above or below 5% of their initial weight and increase of more than 5%.

Follow-up was carried out at 12 months after the intervention assessing patient's BMI (kg/m2), functional level (KSS), weight loss expectations, and range of motion.

The observations of the study were:

• Among the total population, 17 (6.9%) lost weight, 168 (68%) did not have a change, and 62 (25.1%) increased weight at one year follow-up.

• The mean pre-operative BMI was 31.5 kg/m2, and mean postoperative BMI was 31.98 kg/ m2 .

• It was observed that non-obese patients lose weight less frequently than obese patients (p = 0.013). In terms of weight gain, no differences were observed between the obese and non-obese.

• When comparing functional results between groups, no differences were observed in terms of KSS-K and KSS-F.

The authors concluded that - most of the patients who underwent TKA did not achieve significant weight loss at one year after the procedure even when function had dramatically improved, independently of the pre-operative weight loss expectations.

MBBS, Dip. Ortho, DNB ortho, MNAMS

Dr Supreeth D R (MBBS, Dip. Ortho, DNB ortho, MNAMS) is a practicing orthopedician with interest in medical research and publishing articles. He completed MBBS from mysore medical college, dip ortho from Trivandrum medical college and sec. DNB from Manipal Hospital, Bengaluru. He has expirence of 7years in the field of orthopedics. He has presented scientific papers & posters in various state, national and international conferences. His interest in writing articles lead the way to join medical dialogues. He can be contacted at editorial@medicaldialogues.in.

Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli

Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751