Myocardial Infarction Risk in Arthroplasty vs Arthroscopy: How Much Does Procedure Type Matter?

Abstract

Background: This study aimed at assessing short-term risk of serious cardiac events after elective total joint arthroplasty (TJA) as compared to a less-invasive procedure, knee arthroscopy (KA).

Methods: Patients who underwent elective primary total hip arthroplasty (THA), total knee arthroplasty (TKA), or KA from 2011 to 2014 were identified in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database. A 1:1 propensity matching was used to generate 2 control cohorts of KA patients with similar characteristics. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were assessed using perioperative variables.

Results: A total of 24,203 THA, 21,740 TKA, and 45,943 KA patients were included. Bivariate analysis revealed significantly higher rates of serious 30-day cardiac events (myocardial infarction or cardiac arrest) among THA (0.15% vs 0.05%, P < .001) and TKA patients (0.14% vs 0.05%, P < .03) vs KA controls. In multivariate analysis controlling for patient characteristics and comorbidities, THA and TKA were associated with a 2.61 and 1.98 times odds of serious 30-day cardiac events as compared to controls (P ≤ .03 for both). Additional independent predictors of serious 30-day cardiac events included age, smoking, cardiac disease, and American Society of Anesthesiologists class 3/4. In the THA and TKA cohorts, serious cardiac events occurred within the first 3 days postoperation compared to 4 days in controls.

Conclusion: After controlling for patient characteristics and comorbidities, TJA increased the short-term risk of serious cardiac event compared to a less-invasive procedure. This information better quantifies the risk differential for patients considering surgery as they engage in shared decision making with their providers. In addition, our data may have an impact on perioperative management of antithrombotic medications used in patients with cardiac disease. The median time in days to serious cardiac event was 2 in THA and 3 in TKA vs 4 in KA, which may have implications in postoperative monitoring of patients after surgery.

Keywords: NSQIP; cardiac complications; complications; myocardial infarction; total hip arthroplasty; total knee arthroplasty.