Coxarthrosis etiology influences the patients’ quality of life in the preoperative and postoperative phase of total hip arthroplasty

Abstract

Background. In orthopedics, the patients’ quality of life relative to the preoperative and postoperative phase is referred with a low impact compared to other branches of medicine. In this context, our interest focused on assessing the quality of life in patients with traumatic and non-traumatic coxarthrosis by longitudinally following the evolution of the patients. Materials and Methods. The well-established instrument Short Form Survey SF-36 was applied in a retrospective study, conducted on a cohort of 203 participants who underwent THA (Total Hip Arthroplasty). Statistical analysis was generated using GraphPad Prism (version 9.5.1). Results. In the pre-operative phase, physical functioning was more affected in participants with traumatic coxarthrosis, while fatigue was specific to nontraumatic coxarthrosis. Emotional well-being and social functioning were high in patients with traumatic coxarthrosis. One month after surgery, we recorded an increased physical functioning and improvement in the perception of the ability to exercise roles in non-traumatic group. Energy/vitality and general health and well-being were at high level in traumatic group, 1st month post-surgery, although pain was still frequent. Age was the sole strong independent predictor of postoperative physical functioning in the traumatic group, while in the non-traumatic group, we identified gender, age, symptoms and type of prosthesis as strong predictors of postoperative physical functioning. The overall results related to daily living activities indicated that the traumatic group displayed more favorable post-surgery evolution and higher autonomy compared to the non-traumatic one. Conclusions. We conclude that SF-36 questionnaire is a specific, useful and inexpensive tool for evaluating the outcomes of orthopedic treatment and patients’ evolution after arthroplasty, especially in terms of functional outcome scores relative to coxarthrosis etiology.