Background: Surgical treatment of idiopathic degenerative disease of the knee joint with total arthroplasty is aimed at reducing concomitant pain and improving the limited range of motion. This paper aims to assess the influence of pain intensity and range of motion on the presence of knee joint stiffness after primary total arthroplasty.
Material and methods: 59 male and female patients were divided into two groups based on the presence (G1) or absence (G2) of stiffness in the operated knee joint at 3 months post-operatively. Patients completed a questionnaire evaluating the following: sex, age, BMI, pain intensity in a VAS scale and the range of motion of the operated knee joint. The functional status was assessed with the WOMAC score.
Results: Mean age was 68.20 ± 7.02 years in Group 1 (23 women, 7 men) and 67.66 ± 7.47 years in Group 2 (20 women, 9 men). In the first examination, mean active flexion range of motion (ROM) of the operated knee joint was 98.00° ± 10.39° in Group 1 and 92.07° ± 12.14° in Group 2; in the second examination, it was 88.83° ± 4.68° in Group 1 and 90.69° ± 6.23° in Group 2 (p<0.05). The total WOMAC score was 51.13 ± 13.48 in Group 1 and 51.28 ± 15.32 in Group 2 in the first examination and 18.50 ± 9.38 in Group 1 and 13.17 ± 9.02 in Group 2 (p<0.05) in the second examination.
Conclusions: 1. Pain and range of motion in the operated joint may need to be taken into consideration as factors in the development of stiffness in the early post-operative period after primary total knee arthroplasty. 2. There is a need for further research on the problem of knee joint stiffness in the early post-operative period.