Abstract
Background : Total Knee replacement is a surgical procedure, which consists mainly of replacing the damaged knee joint with a new artificial one. This procedure is done in two hours approximately. It is considered as the last treatment option for patients who have degenerative changes. Methods: In this study, we used a cross sectional retrospective chart review to evaluate the outcome of patients who underwent total knee replacement. The aim of this study is to describe the complications of total knee replacement, and to identify the pattern of these complications in our population. We will describe complications of the patients in relation to their comorbidities. Results: We reviewed 778 patients with a total of 949 total knee replacements. Among these patients, unilateral total knee replacements were done in most of them with almost equal number in right (n=305, 39%) compared to the left (n=303, 39%) and less often bilateral (n=171, 22.0%). Urinary tract infections (n=27, 3.5%) got highest rate among other complications followed by surgical site infections (n=25, 3.2%). Hypertension is the commonest comorbidity (n=487, 62.8%) followed by diabetes (n=346, 44.6%), while heart diseases was the least common comorbidity (n=57, 7.3%). Discussion : Patients with diabetes, hypertension or cardiovascular diseases were significantly at higher risk of developing perioperative urinary tract infection. We found that all total knee replacement post- operative complications increase proportionally with BMI. Conclusion : This study will provide the entire health care system with adequate information regarding their patients of the rate of each complication and ialso how can be dealt in a cost efficient way correlating with health care in general.