title: Hysterectomy and patterns of osteoarthritis. The Ulm Osteoarthritis Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the association between hysterectomy (HE) and patterns of osteoarthritis (OA) METHODS: We performed a large cross-sectional study including 504 female patients admitted for arthroplasty of knee or hip joint. Patients with OA were categorized as having bilateral or generalized OA (GOA) according to the presence of radiographic OA in the contralateral or different finger joints. Odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association between HE and OA patterns were estimated adjusting for potential confounders.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Hysterectomy (HE) was reported by 24.9 percent of the patients. Bilateral OA was present in 86.2 percent and GOA was present in 33.3 percent of the patients. HE was not associated with bilateral OA (adjusted OR=0.9; 95% CI: 0.5-1.8) but with a lower prevalence of GOA (adjusted OR=0.6; CI: 0.3-0.99).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In contrast to earlier studies our results suggest that HE might be a marker for a reduced risk for a generalized pattern of OA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery (RKU), University of Ulm, Germany.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stöve
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Stürmer
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kessler
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brenner
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Puhl
authors.forename: K P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Günther
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D015984:Causality; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006622:Hip Prosthesis; D006801:Humans; D007044:Hysterectomy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015994:Incidence; D007720:Knee Prosthesis; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015207:Osteoarthritis, Hip / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery; D020370:Osteoarthritis, Knee / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery; D011379:Prognosis; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index