Elderly have good results with joint replacement

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Although it may take several weeks for elderly patients to recover from joint replacement surgery, excellent long-term outcomes are often seen, new research indicates. The goal of the study, reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine, was to clarify the risks and benefits of hip or knee replacement surgery in elderly patients. Dr. Mary Beth Hamel, from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and colleagues examined the outcomes of 174 patients, 65 years of age or older, with severe osteoarthritis of the hip or knee who were followed for 12 months. During follow-up, 29 percent of the patients underwent joint replacement surgery. None of the surgical patients died, but 17 percent had postoperative complications and 38 percent had pain that lasted longer than 4 weeks. Moreover, it took patients an average of 12 days to recover independence in walking and 49 days to regain the ability to perform household chores. No differences in these recovery times were noted between patients younger than 74 or those aged 75 or older. Overall, the surgical patients experienced a 24-point improvement on a standard osteoarthritis function test compared with just a 0.5-point improvement in nonsurgical patients. Forty-five percent of the non-surgical patients said that joint replacement surgery was never discussed as a treatment option, the report indicates. "Our findings of excellent outcomes from joint replacement surgery in elderly patients with severe hip or knee osteoarthritis corroborate and extend the findings of previous studies," the investigators conclude. "These data should help inform discussion about joint replacement surgery and allow patients to consider the risks and benefits of surgery as well as the expected postoperative recovery experience."