Abstract: Background: Study the effect of drain on outcome of primary TKR.
Method: Prospective study, 150 patients with primary TKR randomly divided into three groups, without drain: Group-A, Group-B: drain for 24 hours and Group-C: drain for 48 hours. With minimum follow-up period of 1 year. Functional outcome majored with KSS-Knee Society Score and VAS-Pain Visual Analogue Scale.
Result: The decrease in haemoglobin in post-operative 3rdday was statistically significant between all the groups (p<0.05). The mean drop in haemoglobin is group-B was 1.84 gm% and 2.59 gm% in Group-C. Patients in group with no drain are having maximum post-operative pain scores among the all groups. The post-operative Knee Society Score in all postoperative follow up at 1 month, 3 months & 1 year, with the scores being lower in patients in whom drain was not kept. There is no significant difference in KSS & between two groups with drain at 1 and 3 months follow up, but there is significant difference in Knee Society Score in between these two groups at 1 year follow up (p=0.004). There are 7 patients in group-A who are having superficial infection post-operatively in comparison to 2 patients in group-A & 3 patients in Group-C.
Conclusion: Post operatively significantly higher blood loss is associated with use of drain, not using a drain is associated with significantly
higher pain in immediate postoperative period and Use of drain for 48 hours postoperatively is associated with
significantly better outcome of total knee replacement after 1 year.
