Demographic and disease features
This study included 91 TKA operations performed on 56 RA patients in our hospital, with a mean patient age of 51.7 years. Average patient follow-up was 11.4 years (ranging from 7-16 years), during which 4 patients were lost to death attrition. The mean duration of RA medication treatment after surgery was approximately 8 years for both groups B and C. No other significant differences were observed between treatment groups in patient demographics (Table 1).
Of patients who received DMARD therapy in group B, conventional DMARDs were given to 6 patients (40.0%) as a single drug regimen, 7 (46.7%) were on a two-DMARD combination, and 2 patients (13.3%) were given a two-drug mix of conventional and biologic DMARD. All patents in group C consistently received one kind of GC plus DMARDs. Among them, 12 (57.1%) received conventional DMARD monotherapy, 6 (28.6%) received combination therapy with two conventional DMARDS, and 3 patients (14.3%) received a two-drug mix of biologic and conventional DMARD regimen. Additionally, NSAIDs were given to patients in all groups as needed to manage acute pain and no patients received GC intraarticular injections. (Table 2)