Complications after knee joint replacement in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Overview

The knee joint replacement by total endoprosthesis is performed in all larger orthopedic hospitals. With respect to possible complications in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, it is one of the most dangerous procedures. Sixty-seven patients with rheumatoid had arthritis had 86 knee joint replacements in orthopedic clinic between 1990 and 2004. The authors describe many complications and their treatment in this paper. No per-operative and post-operative complications in 57 endoprostheses (66.3%), minimal troubles in 15 cases (17.4 %), and complications in 14 knee joint endoprostheses (16.3 %) were observed. These results are reviewed with respect to current literature data. It is summarized that surgery of the knee joint endoprostheses in patients with rheumatoid arthritis is always somewhat risky procedure. The authors would like to learn for the future practice on the basis of the complications occurring in the set of those patients.

Key words:
endoprosthesis of the knee joint, rheumatoid arthritis, per-operative and post-operative complications