The Impact of Total Synovectomy on Blood Loss and Knee Function. A Prospective Randomized Study

Abstract

"Synovial proliferation is a common intraoperative finding during total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and many studies have proposed synovectomy for the reduction of postoperative pain. We included 180 patients that were split into two groups, one which received a total synovectomy (TS) and the other with partial synovectomy (PS). We measured the amount of intra- and post-operative bleeding as well as perceived pain (using the Visual Analogue Scale) and knee function (using the Knee Society Knee Score) at 4 and 12 weeks. The blood loss during the surgical procedure was 367.77 ± 115.71 mL for TS, while the other group recorded 295.55 ± 106.17 mL (p < 0.05). Regarding postoperative bleeding, the TS group aspirated 533.77 ± 281.65 mL, which was significantly higher than the PS group (404.44 ± 211.55 mL, p < 0.05). No significant differences were recorded between the TS and PS groups regarding pain and knee function at 12 weeks. Total synovectomy demonstrated significantly higher blood loss and lower postoperative hemoglobin levels, even though knee function and pain level did not show improvements. We consider that the decision of performing synovectomy should rely on the clinical indication and, if conditions allow for it, a limited resection should be attempted."