How Do Active Cancer Diagnoses Affect Total Joint Arthroplasty Complication Rates?

My name is Robbie Branstetter, and I am a 2nd year medical student at LSU in New Orleans, and I'm just going to talk today about our project on the effects of active Cancer diagnoses on Total joint arthroplasty complication rates. So as our population ages and this procedure becomes more prevalent,

Um, so do the complications associated with aging, such as Cancer, so.

You know, current literature kind of describes increased complications with Cancer patients undergoing Total joint arthroplasty. However, this data is very limited, and so our study aims to assess whether an Active cancer diagnosis actually increases postoperative complication rates, and we also wanted to look at Other demographic variables that might affect complication and mortality rates in these patients.

So this was a retrospective study of patients undergoing undergoing Total joint arthroplasty from 2014 to 2020.

And the first thing I've included is a higher Charleston comorbidity index in our Cancer patient population with a value of 2.5 compared to non-cancer patients at a value of 1.42.

And most importantly, we found no increase in complication rates following Total joint arthroplasty in Cancer patients when compared to our non-cancer patients with an odds ratio of 1.32 and no significant P value.

So while Cancer patients do have a slightly higher CCI, um, their complication risk is not significantly different from Other groups undergoing Total joint arthroplasty.

So these findings just contribute to the growing body of knowledge guiding personalized care strategies for this vulnerable patient population, and ultimately it may help to prevent the stigma of Joint replacement utility, having decreased, decreased utility in patients with lower life expectancy and those with diagnoses such as Cancer.

Additionally, we found increased mortality in Cancer patients and tobacco users. So what we wanted to demonstrate with this data is just that surgeons routinely encounter patients with modifiable Risk factors such as smoking, as demonstrated by a substantial proportion of our patient population, which was around 44% in this study. And so really we just wanted to show that this level of adaptability in approaching cases.

Should also be applied to patients with active Cancer diagnoses, and this just kind of underlines the need for a nuanced and inclusive perspective in surgical decision making.

So that is all I have time for today, and I just want to say thank you for this opportunity and thanks everyone for listening.