FRIDAY, Nov. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Patients who undergo total hip arthroplasty for osteoarthritis maintain improvement of physical function in the long term, researchers report in the Dec. 15 issue of Arthritis Care & Research. A second study in the same issue reports that approximately 22 percent of elderly patients presenting with hip pain will go on to have total hip replacement surgery after six years.
Janet Cushnaghan, of the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, and colleagues followed 282 patients eight years after total hip arthroplasty, matched with 295 controls. Surgery patients sustained improvement in pain function relative to controls, with more frequent improvement reported in patients with more severe preoperative osteoarthritis.
In the second study, Annet M. Lievense, M.D., Ph.D., of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues followed 224 patients who presented to general practice physicians for hip pain and who were referred for a radiograph. Subjects were followed up with questionnaires and an examination at three years and a questionnaire at six years. Of the 193 subjects remaining in the sample at three years, 12 percent underwent a total hip replacement. Of the 163 patients remaining at six years, 22 percent had hip replacement surgery.
"With information obtained from history taking, physical examination and radiology, we are now better able to identify persons who are at high risk for progression of hip osteoarthritis," the authors of the second study conclude.
Abstract - Cushnaghan
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Abstract - Lievense
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