Comparison of analgesic consumption of hemophilic and non-hemophilic patients in knee arthroplasty

BACKGROUND: Hemophilia is a rare hereditary bleeding disorder that develops as a result of factor VIII or IX deficiency. Long-term complications of hemophilia such as arthropathy, synovitis, and arthritis can lead to the development of recurrent chronic pain. Pain is therefore a critical aspect of hemophilia. The gold standard treatment for end-stage hemophilic knee arthropathy is total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The hypothesis of this study was that after knee replacement surgeries that cause severe post-operative pain, hemophilia patients with chronic analgesic consumption may experience higher levels of pain than non-hemophilic patients, and use more opioid and non-opioid drugs. METHODS: This retrospective study included 82 patients who were hemophilic and non-hemophilic TKA patients operated under general anesthesia. Seventy-three patients were evaluated and divided into two groups according to the diagnosis of hemophilia: 36 patients were investigated in the hemophilic group and 37 patients in the non-hemophilic group. RESULTS: Post-operative tramadol consumption (p=0.002) and pethidine consumption (p=0.003) were significantly higher in the group hemophilia. The length of stay in the hospital was also significantly longer in the hemophilic group (p=0.0001). CONCLUSION: In the light of these informations, we think that acute post-operative pain management of hemophilia patients should be planned as personalized, multimodal preventive, and pre-emptive analgesia.