Patients with the most severe cases of rheumatoid arthritis are more likely to suffer flares after knee or hip replacement surgery, a new study finds, and it doesn’t seem to matter whether they stop taking biologics before their operation.
“We found that the majority of patients had active disease at the time of surgery, contrary to prior statements that RA patients have inactive disease at the time they go for hip or knee replacement. In fact, the majority – 65% of the patients – reported a flare of RA within 6 weeks of surgery,” lead author Susan M. Goodman, MD, of Cornell University and the Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, said in an interview. “Surprisingly, although more of the flaring patients were taking potent biologics that had been withheld preoperatively, the major risk factor for flares was their baseline disease activity.”
Dr. Susan M. Goodman
According to Dr. Goodman, the researchers launched the study to better understand how medical decisions prior to joint replacement surgery affect the progress of RA afterward.
In terms of continuing RA drug treatment, she said, “the decision really hinges on the risk of infection versus the risk of flare, and we didn’t know the usual course of events for these patients.”
In addition, she said, “many doctors incorrectly think that the majority of patients with RA have ‘burnt-out’ or inactive disease at the time of hip or knee replacement surgery.”
For the study, the researchers prospectively followed 120 patients who were to undergo joint replacement surgery. (The researchers initially approached 354 patients, of whom 169 declined to participate. Another 65 were dropped from the study for various reasons, including 42 who did not sufficiently fill out questionnaires and were deleted from the final analysis.)