Bariatric Surgery Prior to Total Knee Arthroplasty is Associated With Fewer Postoperative Complications

This study used a national database to compare 90 day postoperative complication rates between three groups of patients who underwent total knee arthroplasty (TKA): (1) non-obese patients (n = 66,523), (2) morbidly obese patients who did not have bariatric surgery (n = 11,294) and (3) morbidly obese patients who underwent bariatric surgery prior to TKA (n = 219). Morbidly obese patients who underwent bariatric surgery prior to TKA had reduced rates of major (OR 0.45, P = 0.001) and minor (OR 0.61, P = 0.01) complications compared to morbidly obese patients who did not have bariatric surgery. Bariatric surgery prior to TKA appears to be associated with less risk of postoperative complications, although not to the same level as non-obese patients.