|
HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Would Total Hip And Knee Replacements Raise Heart Attack Risk? According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), about 800,000 people in the United States have undergone hip or knee replacement each year. These patients usually need new artificial joints and have to undergo a second surgery after 10 to 15 years. Conducting partial or total hip or knee replacement is fairly common among heavy people. Its purpose is to relieve arthritis pain or fix severe physical joint damage. These surgeries, as usual, carry certain degree of risks, including dislocation, loosening, infection, osteolysis, metal sensitivity, nerve palsy, pain and even death. A total hip replacement (THR) is one that replaces both the acetabulum and the femoral head while hemiarthroplasty generally replaces only the femoral head. On the other hand, knee replacement surgery can be done as a partial or a total knee replacement (TKR). The surgery generally consists of replacing the diseased or damaged joint surfaces of the knee with metal and plastic components shaped to allow continued motion of the knee. On July 23, 2012, a paper published online in journal ‘Archives of Internal Medicine’ reported that older patients who have performed a THR or a TKR surgery had a higher risk of heart attack in the first 2 weeks after the operation compared to those who did not undergo joint surgery.
While there was previous evidence suggesting that the risk of a heart attack might be higher shortly after a THR or TKR surgery, the risk of heart attack of those patients has not been compared with those who have not had surgery. Researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands used data drawn from hospital records for 95,227 people who had undergone THR or TKR surgeries in Denmark between 1998 and 2007. For each of these patients, they also found 3 people of the same age and gender who had not had their hip or knee replaced in order to have comparison. In their findings, 1 in 200 patients who had THR surgeries and 1 in 500 patients who had TKR surgeries had a heart attack, over a period of 6 weeks after the surgeries, Calculation showed that in the 2 weeks after THR surgeries, patients were nearly 26 times more likely to be diagnosed with a heart attack than those who did not have surgery. The risk was still 5 times higher from third to sixth week after surgery. As regards TKR, patients had 31 times more likely to get heart attack in the first 2 weeks, but the risk then returned to normal. Link between joint surgeries and heart disease problems was found to be high for patients who aged 80 and above. But this did not apply to patients who were younger than 60. The results, however, could not actually prove that heart attack was triggered by hip or knee replacement surgery. Researchers were also unable to account for factors, such as being overweight or obese, or having high blood pressure, that might affect their risk of getting a joint replaced and having a heart attack. But, researchers pointed out that the surgeries do have some impact on heart disease risk. For instance, cutting into bones could promote clot formation in the bone marrow, especially in hip surgery. Meanwhile, it is highly possible that blood loss and oxygen deprivation could happen during any major surgery. These stressors have been known to raise heart attack risk. Furthermore, the perioperative period is also very stressful for patients. Perioperative period is the duration that covers a patient's surgical procedure. It commonly includes ward admission, anesthesia, surgery, and recovery. As such, it is advisable for people intending to opt for a hip or knee replacement surgery to discuss their history of heart disease, if any, with their doctors. This will help the doctors or surgeons determine if their patients would require extra careful monitoring during the perioperative period.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright
2007-2012 © HowToPreventHeartDisease.com . All Rights Reserved.d........ |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
