Our experience of total knee arthroplasty in rural Karnataka region

Abstract

Total knee arthroplasty is the gold standard in treatment of end-stage osteoarthritis, with excellent functional outcome, and long term pain relief. But its acceptance in the rural setting comes with its own set of challenges. This study highlights our experience in managing patients undergoing TKR in rural Karnataka. We evaluated the outcome by comparing the pre-op and post-op Knee society scores, and incidence of early infection. We selected 34 patients, belonging to rural Karnataka who underwent TKR, and gave informed consent to be a part of this study. The follow-up was of minimum 6 months. In our study, majority of patients belonged to 66-70 age group. Mean BMI was 25.68. The knee society score improved from an average pre-op score of 43.82 to an average of 84.47. The incidence of complications in our study was 9%. We found a significant increase in the KSS scores after undergoing TKR. Based on this series, we conclude that there is no significant difference in the outcomes of Total Knee Replacement, when compared with other series.