Low Back Pain and Depression Are Associated with Worse Patient-Reported Outcomes After Primary Total Knee Arthroplasty

The authors aimed to determine whether the co-occurrence of low back pain and depression affects patient-reported outcomes following primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA) more than either condition alone. Their analysis of 4,173 patients revealed that both conditions were associated with significant reductions in functional improvement and lower odds of achieving clinically important outcomes, particularly among the lowest-improving patients, suggesting that these factors should be considered in preoperative assessments. The study highlights the importance of using distributional analyses in registry research to better understand patient outcomes.