Skip to main content

Arthroscopic Surgery for Arthritis Does Not Impact Incidence of Total Knee Arthroplasty

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on April 23, 2024.

By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, April 23, 2024 -- The addition of arthroscopic surgery to nonoperative management of knee arthritis does not delay or hasten total knee arthroplasty (TKA) during 10 years of follow-up, according to a study published online April 18 in JAMA Network Open.

Trevor B. Birmingham, Ph.D., from University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, and colleagues compared the long-term incidence of TKA in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee randomly assigned to nonoperative management with or without additional arthroscopic surgery. The analysis included 178 adults diagnosed with OA of the knee referred for potential arthroscopic surgery.

The researchers found that during a median follow-up of 13.8 years, 33.7 percent of patients in the arthroscopic surgery group (resection or debridement of degenerative tears of the menisci, fragments of articular cartilage, or chondral flaps and osteophytes that prevented full extension) versus 41.9 percent in the nonoperative management group underwent TKA (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.85; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.52 to 1.40). When accounting for crossovers to arthroscopic surgery during follow-up (15.1 percent), results were similar (HR, 0.88; 95 percent CI, 0.53 to 1.44). Within five years, the cumulative incidence of TKA was 10.2 percent in the arthroscopic surgery group versus 9.3 percent in the nonoperative management group (time-stratified for zero to five years: HR, 1.06; 95 percent CI, 0.41 to 2.75). Within 10 years, the cumulative incidence was 23.3 and 21.4 percent, respectively (time-stratified for five to 10 years: HR, 1.06; 95 percent CI, 0.45 to 2.51).

"Approximately 80 percent of patients did not undergo TKA within 10 years of nonoperative management with or without additional knee arthroscopic surgery," the authors write.

One author disclosed ties to Smith+Nephew and CONMED.

Abstract/Full Text

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Read this next

Radiomics Features Can Identify Destabilizing Meniscal Tears

THURSDAY, May 16, 2024 -- Radiomics features can help identify incident destabilizing meniscal tears, according to a study published online May 15 in the Journal of Orthopaedic...

Worse Outcomes Seen for Severe Bilateral Hip OA in Adult Spinal Deformity

WEDNESDAY, May 15, 2024 -- For patients with adult spinal deformity (ASD), those with severe bilateral hip osteoarthritis (OA) have worse outcomes, according to a study published...

Robotic-Assisted Total Knee Arthroplasty Has Fewer Complications

WEDNESDAY, May 15, 2024 -- Robotic-assisted total knee arthroplasty (rTKA) is associated with fewer complications but higher average total cost than conventional TKA (cTKA)...

More news resources

Subscribe to our newsletter

Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.