Purpose: As the prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) in people over 60 years of age is expected to increase, the number of diabetic patients who undergo total hip and knee arthroplasty should increase concordantly. In general, patients with DM have significantly increased risk for adverse events following arthroplasty. The goal of this study was to determine whether the quality of glycemic control affected the incidence of perioperative complications in the hospital following joint replacement.

Method: From 1988 to 2003, the Nationwide Inpatient Survey (NIS) recognized 65,769 patients who had DM and underwent joint replacement surgery. In this retrospective study, bivariate and multivariate analyses compared patients with uncontrolled (n=2,872) and not uncontrolled (n=62,897) DM regarding common surgical and systemic complications, mortality, and hospital course alterations. Glycemic control was determined by physicians’ assessments based upon the American Diabetes Association guidelines using a combination of patients’ self-monitoring of blood-glucose testing, the hemoglobin A1C, and related complications.

Results: Patients with uncontrolled DM routinely had an increased length of stay and increased inflation-adjusted costs after surgery (p< 0.001). Uncontrolled patients also had significant increases in the incidence of stroke, pneumonia, urinary tract infection, post-operative hemorrhage, wound infection, and death (p< 0.001).

Conclusion: Patients with well-managed glycemic control have fewer comorbidities in general. Patients with uncontrolled DM exhibited significantly increased risks for surgical and systemic complications, higher mortality, increased length of stay, and higher hospital charges during the index hospitalization following arthroplasty. The consequences are increased cost, greater burden on the healthcare system, and greater risk to these patients.