title: Quality-of-life assessment among patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty in Manaus.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  this study had the aim of assessing the quality of life among patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA). For this, the SF-36 and WOMAC questionnaires respectively were used to make comparisons with preoperative values.
  
  
  METHODS
  a prospective observational cohort study was conducted, with blinded analysis on the results from 107 TKAs in 99 patients, between June 2010 and October 2011. The present study included 55 knees/patients, among whom 73% were female and 27% were male. The patients' mean age was 68 years. The SF-36 and WOMAC questionnaires (which have been validated for the Portuguese language) were applied immediately before and six months after the surgical procedure.
  
  
  RESULTS
  the statistical and graphical analyses indicated that the variables presented normal distribution. From the data, it was seen that all the indices underwent positive changes after the surgery.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  despite the initial morbidity, TKA is a very successful form of treatment for severe osteoarthritis of the knee (i.e. more than two joint compartments affected and/or Ahlback classification greater than 3), from a functional point of view, with improvement of the patients' quality of life, as confirmed in the present study. This study presented evidence level IV (description of case series), with analysis on the results, without a comparative study.
authors.affiliation: Orthopedics and Traumatology Service, Fundação Hospital Adriano Jorge, Manaus, AM, Brazil.
authors.forename: Marcos George
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: de Souza Leão
authors.affiliation: Orthopedics and Traumatology Service, Fundação Hospital Adriano Jorge, Manaus, AM, Brazil.
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Santos Santoro
authors.affiliation: Orthopedics and Traumatology Service, Fundação Hospital Adriano Jorge, Manaus, AM, Brazil.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lima Avelino
authors.affiliation: Orthopedics and Traumatology Service, Fundação Hospital Adriano Jorge, Manaus, AM, Brazil.
authors.forename: Lucas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Inoue Coutinho
authors.affiliation: Universidade do Estado do Amazonas, Manaus, AM, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ronan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Campos Granjeiro
authors.affiliation: Orthopedics and Traumatology Service, Fundação Hospital Adriano Jorge, Manaus, AM, Brazil.
authors.forename: Nilton
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Orlando Junior
keywords: Arthroplasty; Assessment; Knee/surgery; Quality of life