Frequency of Anterior Knee Pain After Total Knee Arthroplasty |Biomedgrid

Introduction: Anterior Knee Pain (AKP) is one of the most common causes of persistent problems after knee replacement. Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) is a surgical procedure in which an artificial joint or prosthesis replaces the damaged knee. A significant proportion of the patients experience AKP after surgery. The pain is described as a retro patellar or peripatellar pain. Patients have trouble standing from sitting position, walking up and down stairs, and riding a bicycle in AKP. Objective: To determine the frequency of Anterior Knee Pain after Total Knee Arthroplasty. Material and Methods: This Cross-sectional study was carried out in the Department of Orthopedics, Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar on 205 consecutive patients of either sex from June 2020 to January 2021.After recording complete history, physical examination and routine baseline investigations were done. Patients were put on OT list and surgeries were performed on all patients by expert orthopedic surgeon designated for performing total knee arthroplasty. Post-operatively, patients were kept under observation for 5 days in ward and were discharged if indicated. Patients were followed at regular intervals and finally at the end of the 3rd month to measure the intensity of pain on VAS. Results: Out of 205 patients, 69.3% were males and 30.7% were females. Means±SD calculated for age was 48.62±7.98 years, for BMI was 24.63±3.07 and for Pain on VAS was 1.31±1.39. Most patients (51.7%) were recorded in the 51-60 years age group. Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) in 18% while Osteoarthritis (OA) was found in 82% patients. 21.5% of patients were diabetic while 31.7% patients were hypertensive. AKP at 3rd month was found in 8.8% patients. Conclusion: It is evident that Anterior Knee Pain (AKP) after the Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA), or Total Knee Replacement (TKR) is prevalent and clinically relevant. There is an absolute necessity for further investigations to find out ways to reduce or eliminate the AKP after TKA to improve the quality of life after this surgery.