Knee surgery complications if ill health

NEW YORK, July 14 (UPI) -- Patients with medical problems such as congestive heart failure are at increased risk for major knee surgery complications, U.S. researchers say.

Study leader Dr. Stavros Memtsoudis, an anesthesiologist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, says having both knees replaced or total knee arthroplasty has advantages over staged unilateral -- one -- knee replacement surgery because patients spend less time in a hospital, decreased hospital costs and patients being able to return to work and an active life more quickly.

However, bilateral knee replacements are associated with greater morbidity and mortality than single knee replacements, Memtsoudis says.

The study, published in the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia, found undergoing bilateral total knee arthroplasty -- both knee replacement surgery -- were 5.5 times more likely to have adverse outcomes if they had congestive heart failure and four times more likely to have worse outcomes if they had pulmonary hypertension.

Patients were almost twice as likely to have complications if they were older than 75 compared with individuals age 65 and younger, the study said. Men had a 50 percent greater risk of complications than women.