Abstract
The aim of this study was to examine the relation between gait ability before operation and complication of deep vein thrombosis on lower limb after operation.
Subjects were 34 patients with rheumatoid arthritis who had undergone total knee arthroplasty. We separated patients into two groups based on D-dimer value on post-operative 7 day. If D-dimer on post-operative 7 day was more than 10 μg/ml, patients belonged to Group D, or if D-dimer was less than 10 μg/ml, they were Group N. We evaluated 8 factors; age, sex, operated side, Steinbrocker's stage and class, body weight, Functional Independence Measure, and the taken time of “The Timed Up & Go test”. All data were acquired before operation and compared these factors between two groups.
Among 8 factors, only the taken time of “The Timed Up & Go test” measured before operation was significantly different. Group D took significantly longer time to perform it than Group N. Other factors were not statistically different And the taken time of “The Timed Up & Go test” was dependent on progression of disease expressed by Steinbrocker's stage in the result of simple regression analysis.
This result suggests that patient with poor gait ability before operation has a high risk of complicated deep venous thrombosis after total knee arthroplasty. Thus, the improvement of gait ability not from after operation, but from before operation is important for patients with rheumatoid arthritis and it has a possibility to decrease the prevalence of complicated deep venous thrombosis after total knee arthroplasty.
