Impact of the body mass index on perioperative immunological disturbances in patients with hip and knee arthroplasty.

Background: Obesity increases the risk for knee and hip joint implantation and negatively contributes to wound healing. In this study, in 52 patients undergoing hip and knee arthroplasty the amount of peripheral immune effector cells pre- and post-operative, as well as the expression of certain soluble factors affecting the functions of immune effector cells were investigated.

Methods: The peripheral immune cells and the expression of the soluble factors were determined by flow cytometry and correlated to each other in dependency of the BMI, the sex, and the kind of arthroplasty.