Alcohol Withdrawal Is Associated With Worse Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Primary Total Knee or Total Hip Arthroplasty

Alcohol withdrawal (AW) syndrome is an independent risk factor for postoperative complications. This study aims to evaluate the influence of AW on perioperative outcomes in patients who underwent primary total knee (TKA) or total hip arthroplasty (THA).

We used the National Inpatient Sample database to identify patients undergoing TKA/THA from 2003 to 2014. The primary exposure of interest was AW. Multivariable adjusted models were used to evaluate the association of AW with in-hospital medical complications, surgical complications, mortality, cost, and length of stay (LOS) in patients undergoing TKA/THA.

There were 2,971,539 adult hospitalizations for THAs and 6,367,713 hospitalizations for TKAs included in the present study, among which 0.14% of AW for THA patients and 0.10% of AW for TKA patients. Multivariable adjustment analysis suggested that AW was associated with an increased risk of medical complications (odds ratio [OR] 2.08, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.79-2.42, P < .0001), surgical complications (OR 1.75, 95% CI 1.51-2.03, P < .0001), and had 4.79 times increase of in-hospital mortality, 26% increase of total cost, and 53% increase of LOS in THA procedures. For TKA procedures, AW was also associated with increased risk of medical complications (OR 3.14, 95% CI 2.78-3.56, P < .0001), surgical complications (OR 2.07, 95% CI 1.82-2.34, P < .0001) and 4.24 times increase of in-hospital mortality, 29% increase of total cost, and 58% increase of LOS after multivariable adjustment.

AW is associated with increased risk of in-hospital mortality, medical and surgical complications. Proactive surveillance and management of AW may be important in improving outcomes in patients who underwent THA and TKA procedure.