The Effect of Total Knee Arthroplasty on Body Mass Index—A Prospective Study

• Main Authors: Shariff Raheel, Rathinam Manickam, Fahad Gulam Attar, Wainwright Olwyn, Michael James McNicholas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2011-12-01
• Series: Journal of Orthopaedics, Trauma and Rehabilitation
• Subjects: body mass index; total knee arthroplasty
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210491711000315

Background/Purposes: Osteoarthritic patients, who need a total knee arthroplasty, usually complain of knee pain as the major reason to forbid them from exercising to lose weight. Weight gain, in turn, worsens the process of osteoarthritis as a vicious cycle. In our prospective study, we calculated the preoperative and 1-year post-operative body mass index (BMI) after total knee replacement. Materials and Methods: We prospectively followed up 91 patients in the knee arthroplasty clinic. Height, preoperative weight, and post-operative weight at 12 months were measured, and the pre- and post-operative BMIs were calculated. All the perioperative factors of the patients were without any major change. Results: The mean preoperative BMI was 31.08, and at 12-month follow-up, the mean BMI was 30.11. This difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion: The results obtained in our study suggest that there is no statistically significant difference between the pre- and post-operative BMIs at 1-year follow-up.