PURPOSE To document the incidence of proximal deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism in 58 consecutive Japanese patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty or total knee arthroplasty. METHODS Patients were routinely examined for proximal deep vein thrombosis by B-mode ultrasonography before and after surgery. Those patients who had ultrasonographic findings of deep vein thrombosis were al...

AIM To investigate whether patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS) undergoing total hip or knee replacement have an increased risk for pulmonary embolism (PE). METHODS We studied patients undergoing total hip or total knee replacement from January 2001 to April 2006. The diagnosis of PE was based on a positive finding with a chest CT or a lung scan. Components of MetS were defined as 1) BMI≥3...

Diabetic osteoarthropathy is a rare cause of neuropathic joint disease of the knee; bilateral involvement is even more exceptional. Diagnosis is often made late due to its unspecific symptoms and appropriate surgical management still needs to be defined, due to lack of evidence because of the disease's low incidence. We report the case of a forty-year-old woman with history of diabetes type I w...

Although many hospitals have implemented clinical pathways to standardize the process of care, the effectiveness of clinical pathways for total hip and knee arthroplasties has not been reviewed critically. We searched for articles comparing outcomes of total hip or knee arthroplasty for patients who were treated using clinical pathways as opposed to patients treated without these pathways. Elev...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to systematically review the literature to identify whether obesity or the regular practice of physical activity are predictors of clinical outcomes in patients undergoing elective hip and knee arthroplasty due to osteoarthritis. DESIGN Systematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCE AND ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA A systematic search was performed on the Medli...

BACKGROUND Following hip or knee arthroplasty, it is clinically warranted to get patients functional as quickly as possible. However, valid tools to assess function shortly after knee or hip arthroplasty are lacking. The objective was to compare the clinimetric properties of four instruments to assess function shortly after arthroplasty. METHODS One hundred eight patients undergoing hip or kn...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the pattern and variability of inter-joint coordination for both surgical and non-surgical limbs during walking in patients before and after total hip arthroplasty (THA). Gait analysis of THA patients (n=20) and age-matched controls (n=10) was performed. THA patients were tested at pre-surgery, 6-week and 16-week post surgery. Continuous relative pha...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Evidence-based international guidelines recommend that all patients undergoing elective hip or knee arthroplasty receive thromboprophylaxis with low-molecular-weight heparin or adjusted-dose warfarin. Our objective was to determine what proportion of patients undergoing elective hip or knee arthroplasty actually receive recommended thromboprophylaxis according to inter...

BACKGROUND Surgical site infection (SSI) is a major complication following total joint arthroplasty. Host susceptibility to infection has emerged as an important predictor of SSI. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a preoperative SSI risk-assessment tool for primary or revision knee and hip arthroplasty. METHODS Data for 6,789 patients who underwent total joint arthroplasty...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The effects of launch or closure of an entire arthroplasty unit on the first or last patients treated in these units have not been studied. Using a 3-year follow-up, we investigated whether patients who were treated at the launch or closure stage of an arthroplasty unit of a hospital would have a higher risk of reoperation than patients treated in-between at the same unit...