Abstract
Introduction
Our study aimed to correlate Forgotten Joint Socre(FJS) preoperatively(Preop-FJS) and postoperatively(Postop-FJS), hypothesis being that patients with high Preop-FJS had more likelihood of poor Postop-FJS.
Material & Methods
We retrospectively identified 212 patients, having undergone uniform primary TKA by a single surgeon over 20 months, with complete data of FJS and New Knee Society Score (NKSS), recorded preoperatively and postoperatively(1year±1month). Mean age was 66.3 years, with 167 female and 45 males.
We correlated Preop-FJS to Postop-FJS using Spearmans correlation test. For our hypothesis, we studied patients using two cutoffs for Preop-FJS, first set with median Preop-FJS cutoff of 35 and second set with median Preop-FJS cutoff of 40. We applied Mann Whitney U test to compare Postop-FJS. SPSS software V15.0 was used.
Results
Median Preop-FJS was 14.1(Range=0–81.3;IQR=6.3,25). Median Postop-FJS was 55.9(Range=2.1–100;IQR=42.2,78.6). Spearman Correlation Coefficient(rho) between them was(−)0.04, statistically not significant(p=0.53) but suggesting an inverse association.
On studying Preop-FJS cutoff of 35, 20 patients having Preop-FJS>35 showed corresponding Postop-FJS of 50; remaining 192 patients with Preop-FJS≤35 showed corresponding Postop-FJS of 56.8. The difference in Postop-FJS was not statistically significant(p= 0.16). On studying Preop-FJS cutoff of 40, 11patients having Preop-FJS>40 showed corresponding Postop-FJS of 43.7; remaining 201 patients with Preop-FJS≤40 showed corresponding Postop-FJS of 56.8; the difference in Postop-FJS being statistically significant(p= 0.04). On comparison, patients with Preop-FJS≤40 showed significant improvement(p=0.001) in Postop-FJS, while patients with Preop-FJS>40 showed no improvement(p=0.2).
Discussion and Conclusion
So far no study establishes the relationship between preoperative and postoperative FJS. Our hypothesis was confirmed that if Preop-FJS was high, i.e. patient perceived his arthritic joint as normal in daily activities, then he was likely to have a poor Postop-FJS, consequently unable to accept the artificial joint as normal. In clinical practice, to avoid dissatisfaction we now additionally counsel patients with Preop-FJS>40.
