RESULTS
As for demographic data of TKR patients (n=88),
most of them were female, were married, had primary
education, and were unemployed with income ranging from 5,001 to 10,000 baht/month, and had government
reimbursement as shown in Table 1.
More than half of the subjects (51.10%) had
osteoarthritis in their left knee. None had postoperative
complications. Most of the subjects had more than one
chronic condition, with hypertension (53.40%) being most
commonly found, followed by dyslipidemia (36.40%) and
diabetes mellitus (28.4%).
After TKR surgery, the mean length of hospitalization was 4.95 days (S.D. = 0.84). The mean interval
between hospital discharge and the first follow-up examination was 11.19 days (S.D. = 3.26), and the mean interval
between post surgery and first follow-up examination was
16.17 days (S.D. = 3.51).
At the first follow-up after TKR, according to
Table 2, most of the subjects were elderly persons (mean =
67.63 years, S.D. = 7.59). Their BMI was higher than the
normal level, or overweight. The mean scores of recovery
symptoms and functional status were 65 points (S.D. =
14.64) and 110.74 points (S.D. = 11.36), respectively.
When ranking severity of recovery symptoms, the
five leading symptoms were pain, limping, knee numbness, anxiety, and knee swelling.
When considering the mean score of each aspect
of functional status, the top five activities that were found to
be most problematic for patients were doing heavy domestic
duties, going shopping, walking upstairs, walking downstairs, and walking on a flat surface, respectively. On the
other hand, the activities that were least problematic were
taking off pants, rising from bed, and putting on pants,
respectively.
At first follow-up, as shown in Table 3, there was
no relationship between age and functional status or BMI
and functional status. However, there was a statistically
significant positive relationship between recovery symptoms and functional status at a moderate level.