Abstract
To investigate difference in the improvement rate of flexion Range of Motion (ROM) one year after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) of the patients with knee osteoarthritis (knee OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) under conditions where no differences in preoperative ROM. Twenty-eight knees of twenty-two patients with knee OA and seventeen knees of fifteen patients with RA were included in this longitudinal study. Based on the preoperative ROM, we classified subjects into the good ROM group (ROM; 130 degree or more) and the medium ROM group (ROM< 130 degree), and then classified into 2 groups by diagnosis. The improvement degree of knee flexion ROM one year after surgery was calculated and compared between both diseases. In the good ROM group there was no differences in postoperative improvement degree of knee flexion ROM between the knee OA and the RA, however in the medium ROM group the patients with RA were significantly larger than the patients with knee OA. These findings suggest the improvement degree of knee flexion ROM one year after TKA was similar in the both diseases when the preoperative ROM was 130 degree or more, but, that of the patients with RA was larger when the preoperative ROM was less than 130 degree.
