Chronic Pain and Health Related Quality of Life Assessment One Year After Total Knee Arthroplasty.

Objective: To assess chronic pain prevalence, health related quality of life (HRQOL), and factors associated with HRQOL in patients at least one year after total knee arthrosplasty (TKA).

Study Design: Descriptive study.

Place And Duration Of Study: Sancaktepe Martyr Prof. Dr. Ilhan Varank Education and Training Hospital, between June 2019 and June 2021.

Methodology: Patients, who had undergone elective TKA operation for the first time were included in the study. The identified patients were contacted by phone and asked to complete questionnaires including short form 12 version 2 (SF-12 v2) for HRQOL, having components, physical (PCS) and mental health score (MCS). Demographic and perioperative data were collected by reviewing the patients' medical records retrospectively.

Results: Of the 122 selected patients, 105 (86%) patients accepted to take survey via telephone. According to MCS scores, all patients showed good mental health. Patients were classified according to their PCS; into low HRQOL (Group L, n=42) and high HRQOL (Group H, n=63). Six percent of patients had chronic pain and 60% had high HRQOL after TKA. Age, body mass index (BMI), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were significantly higher in Group L. Postoperative numerical rating scale (NRS, p=0.007) and dolour neuropathic pain score (DN4, p=0.002) were significantly different between both groups.

Conclusion: Older age, high BMI, COPD, postoperative chronic pain, and postoperative neuropathic pain were associated with HRQOL after TKA.

Key Words: Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee, Pain, postoperative, Chronic pain, Neuralgia, Quality of Life.