OA Patients Undergoing TJR at Increased Risk of Heart Attack

Eliminate one problem, create another…A team of researchers from Boston has found that osteoarthritis (OA) patients who underwent total knee or hip joint replacement surgery were at increased risk of heart attack in the early post-operative period. And while the team found that there was no long-term risk of having a heart attack, the risk of experiencing a blood clot in the veins and lungs persisted for years following the surgery.

“While evidence shows that joint replacement surgery improves pain, function, and quality of life for the osteoarthritis patient, the impact of cardiovascular health has not been confirmed, ” explains lead study author Yuqing Zhang, D.Sc., Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Boston University School of Medicine in the August 31, 2015 news release. “Our study examines if joint replacement surgery reduces risk of serious cardiovascular events among osteoarthritis patients.”

The present cohort study included 13, 849 patients who underwent total knee replacement surgery and 13, 849 matched controls who did not have surgery. Patients were 50 years of age or older and diagnosed with knee or hip osteoarthritis between January 2000 and December 2012.

“Our findings provide the first general population-based evidence that osteoarthritis patients who have total knee or total hip replacement surgery are at increased risk of heart attack in the immediate postoperative period, ” concludes Dr. Zhang. “The long-term risk of heart attack was insignificant, but risk of blood clots in the lung remained for years after surgery to replace a hip or knee damaged by osteoarthritis.”

Dr. Zhang told OTW, “Future research on measures to prevent the immediate postoperative risk of myocardial infarction following total joint arthroplasty may need to be considered.”