Poor outcomes of primary total knee arthroplasty in patients with Parkinson's disease.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to compare the functional outcomes, activity levels, mortalities, implant survival rates, and complications of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) with those of patients in a control group over a minimum ten year follow-up period.

METHODS

From January 2007 to December 2009, 46 TKAs were performed in 29 patients with PD (PD group). Fifty-eight matched patients without PD were used as the control group in a two-to-one ratio using propensity scoring matching. The functional outcomes, activity levels, mortalities, implant survival rates, and complications of TKA in patients with PD and control group were compared.

RESULTS

The mean Knee Society knee scores in PD and control group improved from 36.8 and 37.1 pre-operatively to 60.0 and 80.7 points at the final follow-up, respectively (p < 0.05). Outdoor ambulatory patients at the final follow-up included 13 of 20 (65.0 %) in PD group and 51 of 54 (94.4%) patients in control group (p < 0.05). The cumulative mortality rates in PD and control group were 31% (9/29) and 6.9% (4/58) (p < 0.05), at final follow-up, respectively. Kaplan-Meier survivorship analysis with revision of either components as endpoints in PD and control group estimated 89.7% and 98.3% chances of survival for ten years, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

TKAs in patients with PD were shown to have worse functional outcomes and higher mortality over a minimum ten year follow-up period. Therefore, the necessity of the procedure should be considered carefully depending on patient needs and conditions.