Outcomes of total knee arthroplasty in arthritis using functional knee score

Background: Knee being a major weight bearing joint, arthritis of the knee is a common problem. Over time various conservative measures have been used to alleviate the arthritic pain, but complete pain relief has rarely been achieved. Total Knee Arthroplasty has an established place in the treatment of knee arthritis and is an effective surgical modality that provides immediate pain relief and enhances quality of life. Though most patients were satisfied by the immediate outcome of the surgery, further detailed interrogation revealed concern and inability to perform activities they previously used to do, thus arising the need for an objective method to measure the true outcome.Methods: There are very few established objective scoring methods to evaluate the outcome following a Total Knee Arthroplasty. In our study, we have used the ‘Functional Knee Score’ for the 30 patients with arthritis who underwent TKA using the midvastus approach under tourniquet cover.Results: The majority of the patients were from the age group of 61-70 years which accounts for 36.7% of patients in our study. The mean functional new knee society score preoperatively was 39.90 standard deviation of 3.055 which improved to 80.77 with standard deviation of 6.263 postoperatively, p<0.001.Conclusions: Using knee society functional score, 10 patients had excellent results, 16 had a good result, 4 patients a had fair result