A study published in the July issue of the journal Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research finds that an increase in the number of obese patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty (TJA) may be related to growing trends of revision and infection following TJA. 

The research team reviewed data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database and other public sources. They found that 39 percent of total hip arthroplasty patients were obese in 1998, compared to 52 percent of THA patients in 2011. Similarly, 57 percent of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) patients were obese in 1998, compared to 70 percent of TKA patients in 2011. Over the same period, the research team identified increasing prevalence of obesity with rates of THA and TKA revision and rates of THA and TKA infection. Learn more...