Knee joint dysfunction in the patients immediately before arthroplasty was well reflected by locomotive syndrome, not physical frailty.

Abstract

Objectives: We assessed physical function by three different methods in patients with knee osteoarthritis just before total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and investigated the relationship with pre-operative factors.

Methods: All patients scheduled to undergo TKA were assessed for basic attributes, clinical assessment, radiography, whole-body mode dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, knee muscle strength, and frailty, sarcopenia, locomotive syndrome (LS) were evaluated.

Results: Among 204 patients (213 knees), 172 women the overall distribution in frailty was no: 14.6%, pre-frailty: 58.5%, frailty: 26.8%; in sarcopenia no: 93.3%, yes: 3.4%, severe: 3.4%; and in LS Stage 0: 0%, Stage 1: 3.3%, Stage 2: 11.4%, Stage 3: 85.3% . Eighty-seven per cent of the patients with frailty and 92% with LS Stage 3 did not suffer from sarcopenia. Statistically significant relationships were observed between sarcopenia and frailty, while there was no relationship between LS and frailty or LS and sarcopenia. Multivariate analysis of related factors with severity levels for frailty and LS revealed statistically significant correlations for frailty with gait speed, and LS with Knee Society Score and muscle strength.

Conclusion: In patients with knee osteoarthritis frailty and LS were not related to sarcopenia. Knee joint dysfunction without sarcopenia was well reflected by LS, but not by frailty.