We investigated whether the Discovery total elbow arthroplasty (TEA) system had good results and survival in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.
In a prospective cohort study, one elbow surgeon performed TEA on 25 consecutive RA patients (31 elbows) between December 2004 and November 2012 using the Discovery system. We evaluated the preoperative elbow range of motion (ROM), functional outcome with QuickDash and quality of life with EQ-5D. An independent colleague evaluated the same parameters 1-8 years (mean 4.5) postoperatively. The medical records of the follow-up visits for the study period were available for review.
A complete set of results was available for 19 patients (25 elbows). The mean ROM improved in flexion/extension from 88° (SD 27) to 113° (SD 19) and in pronation/supination from 55° (SD 28) to 68° (SD 22) (p < 0.05). The mean QuickDash also improved from 66.5 (SD 25.7) to 40.2 (SD 24) (p < 0.01). The mean EQ-5D improved from 0.68 (SD 0.2) to 0.75 (SD 0.13) but was not statistically significant (p = 0.09). Three patients were revised because of loosening, 2 more patients were re-operated. This resulted in a Kaplan-Meier survival of 90 % (CI 72-97) for the study period.
The Discovery system has shown satisfactory results in RA patients even if the rate of complication remained relatively high. Further follow-up is required to investigate the radiological changes observed in some of our patients.