The Rise of Obesity among Total Knee Arthroplasty Patients

This study utilizes a national database to evaluate incidence, demographics, outcomes, charges, and cost in nonobese, overweight, nonmorbidly obese, and morbidly obese TKA patients. We queried the National Inpatient Sample from 2009 to 2016 for primary TKA patients identifying 4,053,037 nonobese patients, 40,077 overweight patients, 809,649 nonmorbidly obese patients, and 428,647 morbidly obese patients. Chi-square was used to analyze categorical variables, and one-way analysis of variance was used to analyze continuous variables. Nonmorbidly obese and morbidly obese patients represented 23.2% of all TKAs. TKA utilization increased 4.1% for nonobese patients, 121.6% for overweight patients, 73.6% for nonmorbidly obese patients, and 83.9% for morbidly obese patients. Morbidly obese patients were younger (p < 0.001), female (p < 0.001), Black (p < 0.001), poor (p < 0.001), and utilized private insurance (p < 0.001). They also had the longest length of stay (p < 0.001) and the highest mortality rate (p < 0.001). More morbidly obese patients were discharged to other facilities (p < 0.001), and they had the highest rate of complications (p < 0.001). Patients with morbid obesity had the highest charges (p < 0.001), but overweight patients had the highest costs (p < 0.001). The results of this study demonstrate the rise in obese and morbidly obese patients seeking TKAs, which may be reflection of the obesit...
Source: Journal of Knee Surgery - Category: Orthopaedics Authors: Tags: Original Article Source Type: research