Patient Satisfaction Following Total Knee Arthroplasty: Comparison of Short-Term Results in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoarthritis

Background: Due to the obvious differences in the natural course of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA),different functional outcomes might be expected after Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) in these distinct patients. Althoughseveral studies have reported the objective outcome of TKA in RA and OA patients, few studies have compared postoperativepatient-satisfaction levels.Methods: In this clinical cohort study 171 patients (RA: n=33, OA: n=138) who underwent TKA with posteriorstabilizing knee prosthesis were included. The Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) and OxfordKnee Score (OKS) were used to evaluate and compare patients’ satisfaction 6 and 12 months after TKA relative totheir preoperative state and to make an assessment between two groups.Results: Both of patient-reported scoring systems showed a statistically significant improvement for OA and RApatients at 6 and 12 months after surgery, relative to their preoperative scores. The results of the OKS and KOOS didnot show statistically significant improvement from 6 to 12 months n RA patients. Unlike RA group, OKS and KOOSrevealed further improvement between 6 and 12 months for the osteoarthritic patients.Conclusion: OA patients had continuous improvement in their satisfaction in the first year after TKA with a gentleupward curve. In contrast, in RA patients, recovery was faster and greater in the first six months after surgery andslowed down in the second six months. Patient-reported outcome scores were not significantly different between twogroups at the end of the first year.Level of evidence: II