Surgical stress differences between total hip arthroplasty and total knee arthroplasty

This study aims to clarify the difference between surgical stress of total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) under the same conditions through blood transfusion and ischemic extremity. Body temperature, white blood cell (WBC) count, the level of C-reactive protein (CRP), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were measured for eleven patients undergoing THA and eight patients undergoing TKA. All the patients who underwent THA and TKA received a transfusion of 2 units of autologous blood but no transfusion with homologous blood, and the TKA surgery was performed without an air tourniquet. The first day after the surgery, there was no significant difference between the THA and TKA with respect to body temperature and CRP. However, there was a significant difference between the THA and TKA in WBC count (p < 0.05) and IL-6 (p < 0.01) on the first day after the surgery. In addition, there was a significant difference between the THA and TKA in IL-6 (p < 0.05) and CRP level (p < 0.05) on the seventh day after the surgery. The surgical stress of TKA was significantly larger than the surgical stress of THA. There may be more potential complications in the patients who underwent TKA than those who underwent THA. Key words: Cytokine, surgical stress, total hip arthroplasty, total knee arthroplasty