The prevalence and impact of sarcopenia in females undergoing total hip arthroplasty: A prospective study.

Objectives: Although both sarcopenia and hip disease decrease physical function, few studies have investigated the association. We investigated the prevalence of sarcopenia in patients awaiting total hip arthroplasty for osteoarthritis and examined the impact of sarcopenia on pre- and postoperative outcomes.

Methods: This prospective study included 96 females. Participants were classified using two criteria. Cases defined as having sarcopenia by the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS) criteria were categorized as the AWGS-sarcopenia (A-S) group, and others were categorized as the AWGS-non-sarcopenia (A-NS) group. Those classified by hand grip strength (HGS) constituted the lower-HGS (L-H) and normal-HGS (N-H) groups. Patient demographics, physical function, and Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score were compared between each group.

Results: The prevalence of the AWGS sarcopenia was 33.3%. In the pre- and postoperative analyses, the L-H group had significantly poorer physical function and JOA score than the N-H group. Postoperatively, the A-S group only demonstrated poorer HGS.

Conclusion: Preoperative physical function and JOA score was significantly poorer in the L-H group; physical function was significantly poorer even postoperatively. A HGS test is useful for detecting a decline in the pre- and postoperative physical function in females with hip osteoarthritis.