Implant durability not affected by participation in heavy manual labor or high-impact sports
FRIDAY, March 12 (HealthDay News) -- In patients who undergo total knee arthroplasty, participation in high-impact sports may have no effect on implant durability, according to research presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, held from March 9 to 13 in New Orleans.
Sebastian Parratte, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and colleagues compared outcomes in 218 knee arthroplasty patients aged 18 to 90 years who reported participation in heavy manual labor or a non-recommended sport after surgery, and 317 matched controls who followed recommended activity guidelines.
After an average follow-up of 7.5 years, the researchers found that there were no significant group differences in radiological findings or implant durability, and that the sports group had slightly higher Knee Society knee and function scores. Although the control group had a 20 percent higher revision rate for mechanical failure than the sports group, the researchers' adjusted analysis showed that the sports group had a 10 percent higher risk of mechanical failure.
"We hypothesized that high-impact activities would not increase the risk of implant failure, but we did not foresee that such activities might actually improve clinical results," Parratte said in a statement. "It is clear that more research is necessary to evaluate the short- and long-term effect of high-impact activities on the durability and function of modern total knee arthroplasty implants."
More Information