There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
We examined the prevalence of narcotic use before and after total knee arthroplasty
(TKA) and its association with post-TKA pain relief and satisfaction. Data on 6364
primary, unilateral TKA patients in a national registry were analyzed. Before TKA,
24% of patients were prescribed one form of narcotic. Of these, 14% reported continued
narcotic use at 12 months after TKA, whereas the majority discontinued use. Only 3%
of patients who did not use narcotics before TKA had a narcotics prescription at 12
months. Patients who used narcotics before TKA were more likely to have a narcotic
prescription at 12 months post-TKA, reported greater pain at 12 months, and were more
likely to be dissatisfied with TKA outcome. These findings have implications for patient
pre-TKA counseling.
Copyright 2010. Published by Elsevier Inc.