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Does pre-existing morbidity influences risks and benefits of total hip replacement for osteoarthritis: a prospective study of 6682 patients from linked national datasets in England

Ferguson, Rory; Prieto-Alhambra, Daniel; Peat, George; Delmestri, Antonella; P Jordan, Kelvin; Valderas, Jose Maria; Walker, Christine; Yu, Dahai; Glyn-Jones, Sion; Silman, Alan

Does pre-existing morbidity influences risks and benefits of total hip replacement for osteoarthritis: a prospective study of 6682 patients from linked national datasets in England Thumbnail


Authors

Rory Ferguson

Daniel Prieto-Alhambra

George Peat

Antonella Delmestri

Jose Maria Valderas

Christine Walker

Sion Glyn-Jones

Alan Silman



Abstract

Total hip arthroplasty (THA) surgery for elderly people with multimorbidity increases the risk of serious health hazards including mortality. Whether such background morbidity reduces the clinical benefit is less clear. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate how pre-existing health status, using multiple approaches, influences risks of, and quality of life benefits from, THA. SETTING: Longitudinal record linkage study of a UK sample linking their primary care to their secondary care records. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 6682 patients were included, based on the recording of the diagnosis of hip osteoarthritis in a national primary care register and the recording of the receipt of THA in a national secondary care register.Data were extracted from the primary care register on background health and morbidity status using five different constructs: Charlson Comorbidity Index, Electronic Frailty Index (eFI) and counts of comorbidity disorders (from list of 17), prescribed medications and number of primary care visits prior to recording of THA. OUTCOME MEASURES: (1) Postoperative complications and mortality; (2) postoperative hip pain and function using the Oxford Hip Score (OHS) and health-related quality of life using the EuroQoL (EQ)-5D score. RESULTS: Perioperative complication rate was 3.2% and mortality was 0.9%, both increased with worse preoperative health status although this relationship varied depending on the morbidity construct: the eFI showing the strongest relationship but number of visits having no predictive value. By contrast, the benefits were not reduced in those with worse preoperative health, and improvement in both OHS and EQ-5D was observed in all the morbidity categories. CONCLUSIONS: Independent of preoperative morbidity, THA leads to similar substantial improvements in quality of life. These are offset by an increase in medical complications in some subgroups of patients with high morbidity, depending on the definition used. For most elderly people, their other health disorders should not be a barrier for THA.

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 27, 2021
Publication Date Sep 23, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal BMJ Open
Publisher BMJ Publishing Group
Pages e046712 - ?
DOI https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046712
Keywords geriatric medicine; surgery; hip; orthopaedic & trauma surgery
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046712