Early morbidity after total hip replacement: rheumatoid arthritis versus osteoarthritis.

The authors used the California Health Facilities Discharge data for 1984 and 1985 to compare retrospectively in-hospital morbidity and mortality of all 721 patients with rheumatoid arthritis versus all 8,859 patients with osteoarthritis who underwent a non-emergent, first-time, unilateral total hip arthroplasty. The lengths of hospitalization, in-hospital mortality rates, and incidences of postoperative complications were similar in the two groups except for higher rates of wound infection and wound dehiscence in the patients with rheumatoid arthritis and a higher rate of thromboembolic events in the osteoarthritis group. The short-term outcome of patients with rheumatoid arthritis appears comparable to that of patients with osteoarthritis.