Patient characteristics as predictors of clinical outcome of distraction in treatment of severe ankle osteoarthritis

• Published in: Journal of orthopaedic research 2014-01, Vol.32 (1), p.96-101
• Main Authors: Marijnissen, A.C.A., Hoekstra, M.C.L., Pré, B.C. du, van Roermund, P.M., van Melkebeek, J., Amendola, A., Maathuis, P., Lafeber, F.P.J.G., Welsing, P.M.J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Ankle Joint - physiopathology; Ankle Joint - surgery; Disability Evaluation; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; joint distraction; Male; Middle Aged; Multivariate Analysis; osteoarthritis; Osteoarthritis - physiopathology; Osteoarthritis - surgery; Osteogenesis, Distraction - methods; prediction; Predictive Value of Tests; Prospective Studies; Recovery of Function; Regression Analysis; Severity of Illness Index; Survival Analysis; Treatment Outcome
• ISSN: 0736-0266; 1554-527X
• DOI: 10.1002/jor.22475

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a slowly progressive joint disease. Joint distraction can be a treatment of choice in case of severe OA. Prediction of failure will facilitate implementation of joint distraction in clinical practice. Patients with severe ankle OA, who underwent joint distraction were included. Survival analysis was performed over 12 years (n = 25 after 12 years). Regression analyses were used to predict failures and clinical benefit at 2 years after joint distraction (n = 111). Survival analysis showed that 44% of the patients failed, 17% within 2 years and 37% within 5 years after joint distraction (n = 48 after 5 years). Survival analysis in subgroups showed that the percentage failure was only different in women (30% after 2 years) versus men (after 11 years still no 30% failure). In the multivariate analyses female gender was predictive for failure 2 years after joint distraction. Gender and functional disability at baseline predicted more pain. Functional disability and pain at baseline were associated with more functional disability. Joint distraction shows a long‐term clinical beneficial outcome. However, failure rate is considerable over the years. Female patients have a higher chance of failure during follow‐up. Unfortunately, not all potential predictors could be investigated and other clinically significant predictors were not found. © 2013 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 32:96–101, 2014.