Early Postoperative Outcomes of Primary Total Knee Arthroplasty after Solid Organ Transplantation in the United States, 1998-2011

This review of the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (1998-2011) examined trends in solid organ transplant patients who received a total knee arthroplasty (TKA) to determine whether length of stay (LOS), cost, and perioperative complications differed from non-transplant peers. Primary TKA patients (n=5,870,421) were categorized as: (1) those with a history of solid organ transplant (n=6,104) and (2) those without (n=5,864,317). Propensity matching was used to estimate adjusted effects of solid organ transplant history on perioperative outcomes. The percentage of TKA patients with a transplant history grew during the study period from 0.069% to 0.103%. Adjusted outcomes showed patients with a transplant had a 0.44 day longer LOS, $962 higher cost of admission, and were 1.43 times more likely to suffer any complication (p=0.0002).