• Hip and knee surgery

Osteoarthritis and metabolic syndrome are diseases with several biochemi-cal similarities. However, a clear causal relationship explaining these has yet to be established. The influence of metabolic syndrome has been dis-cussed in relation to several diseases and patient populations. The literature has shown an increased prevalence of metabolic syndrome in patients with osteoarthritis, which has been linked to an inferior functional outcome after hip and knee arthroplasty. Furthermore, metabolic syndrome increases the risk of cardiovascular complications related to surgery, while obesity and diabetes increase the risk of wound infection and surgery-related infection. It is essential to thoroughly study the impact of metabolic syndrome in these patients as it has the potential to uncover causal pathways.
The aim was to investigate the effect of metabolic syndrome on 2,901 patients on functional outcome after hip and knee arthroplasty, risk of revision, length of stay and risk of readmission. The patients were included at Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Lillebaelt Hospital – Vejle, University Hospital of Southern Denmark, utilising an ethnic-specific definition of metabolic syn-drome and performing a thorough physical and biochemical examination to identify patients with metabolic syndrome.
Patients with metabolic syndrome had the same functional outcome after hip and knee arthroplasty as patients without metabolic syndrome. The risk of revision due to prosthetic joint infection was the same between groups, and mortality was not increased in patients with metabolic syndrome. Neverthe-less, patients with metabolic syndrome recorded a slight increase in length of stay (0.2 days), which was considered of minimal clinical importance. They also experienced a 20% increased risk of readmission within 90 days after surgery.
The results suggest that it may be beneficial to implement screening for metabolic syndrome before referring patients for hip and knee arthroplasty. Future research should focus on mapping the common inflammatory disease pathways in osteoarthritis and metabolic syndrome.

Links til Pubmed:
Studie 1: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39348914/
Studie 2: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39025274/
Studie 3: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39404250/