Evidence mapPaperPMID 41527669Full record

ArticleCureus2026

Short-Term Functional Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Primary Total Knee Arthroplasty According to Their Body Mass Index.

Ranj Bhakar, Arjun S Chakrapani, Arfaz Shaik, Aaron Alexander, Thivagar Murugesan, Prasanna Kumar Anbazhagan, Dan Ghent

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Article in Cureus, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

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PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Ranj BhakarDepartment of Trauma and Orthopaedics, Torbay Hospital, Torquay, GBR.
Arjun S ChakrapaniDepartment of Trauma and Orthopaedics, Torbay Hospital, Torquay, GBR.
Arfaz ShaikDepartment of Orthopaedics and Trauma, Croydon University Hospital NHS Trust, London, GBR.
Aaron AlexanderDepartment of Orthopaedics, University Hospital Llandough, Penarth, GBR.
Thivagar MurugesanDepartment of Trauma and Orthopaedics, Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, Shrewsbury, GBR.
Prasanna Kumar AnbazhaganDepartment of General Surgery, Ashford and St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey, GBR.
Dan GhentDepartment of Internal Medicine, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, GBR.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveThis study aimed to evaluate the association between body mass index (BMI) and short-term outcomes following primary unilateral total knee arthroplasty (TKA), including functional improvement, perioperative variables, and postoperative complications. METHODOLOGY: A retrospective case-control study was conducted at a tertiary orthopedic center on 525 consecutive patients who underwent primary unilateral TKA for osteoarthritis between January 2019 and December 2023. Patients were classified according to World Health Organization (WHO) BMI criteria: normal (18.5-24.9 kg/m²), overweight (25.0-29.9 kg/m²), and obese (≥30.0 kg/m²). Collected data included demographics, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) grade, Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), operative time, length of hospital stay, change in Knee Society Score (ΔKSS) at 12 months, patient-reported outcome measures, satisfaction, revision surgery, and postoperative complications. Between-group comparisons were performed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for continuous variables and chi-square or Fisher's exact tests for categorical variables, with significance set at p < 0.05.

resultsBaseline characteristics were comparable across BMI groups, except for higher ASA scores and HbA1c levels in obese patients (p < 0.05). Obese patients had significantly longer operative times (95.9 ± 16.8 minutes) and hospital stays (4.8 ± 1.2 days) than normal-weight patients (83.6 ± 14.1 minutes; 3.9 ± 1.0 days, p < 0.01). All BMI groups demonstrated significant improvement in ΔKSS at 12 months, although the gain was lowest in obese patients (34.7 ± 10.5 vs. 41.2 ± 9.6; p = 0.012). Overall complications were highest in the obese group with 16 patients (9.1%), followed by nine patients (5.1%) in the overweight group and seven patients (4.0%) in the normal-weight group, with wound-related issues being the most common. Revision surgery occurred in one (0.6%) obese patient, and no mortality was reported.

conclusionHigher BMI was associated with longer operative times, prolonged hospital stays, increased wound complications, and slightly reduced functional improvement and satisfaction at 12 months after primary TKA. These findings highlight the importance of optimizing metabolic status before surgery and emphasize the need for individualized perioperative risk assessment in patients undergoing knee arthroplasty.

Indexed as

body mass indexcomplicationsknee society scorelength of staypatient-reported outcomestotal knee arthroplasty

Identifiers

PMID41527669
PMCPMC12790792

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.