Information about a piece of news titled Focal cartilage defects in the knee impair life quality as much as severe osteoarthritis
Focal cartilage defects in the knee impair life quality as much as severe osteoarthritis
Intoduction
This is the main outcome of a comparison of the knee injury and osteoarthritis outcome (KOOS) score in 4 patient categories scheduled for knee surgery.
Invloved in this cross-sectional study from the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center were Stig Heir, Tor K Nerhus, Jan H Røtterud, Sverre Løken, Arne Ekeland, Lars Engebretsen and Asbjørn Årøen.
Patients with focal cartilage defects in the knee may suffer from both pain and functional impairment, and treatment options are often insufficient.
The hypothesis was that complaints because of localized cartilage defects in the knee reduce quality of life measured by KOOS to a different extent than those due to anterior cruciate ligament deficiency and osteoarthritis, when comparing patients within the working population scheduled for surgery.
So far, it is not known, however, to what extent their complaints affect quality of life, compared with other knee disorders.
Methods: Previously registered KOOS baseline data on patients enrolled in different knee treatment studies were included in the present study; the patients were 18 to 67 years of age (working population) at data registration. The KOOS subscale quality of life was the main parameter for comparison of complaints.
Results: At preoperative baseline, patients with focal cartilage defects in the knee scored 27.5 on the KOOS subscale quality of life, not significantly different from the 28.8 and 27.2 in the patients with osteoarthritis enrolled for knee osteotomies and arthroplasties, respectively.
For all the subscales of KOOS, the cartilage patients scored significantly lower than the patients with ACL deficiency.
The authors concluded that patients with focal cartilage lesions have major problems with pain and functional impairment. Their complaints are worse than those of patients with anterior cruciate ligament–deficient knees, and quality of life is affected to the same extent as in patients scheduled for knee replacement.