Long-term assessment of morphological, functional, and quantitative parameters of skeletal muscle in older patients after unilateral total hip arthroplasty.

Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is performed for pain relief in patients with osteoarthritis of the hip joint. After THA, patients may recover muscle mass and physical function. Muscle quality is the main parameter used to indicate intramuscular fat content, and it is related with muscle function in older individuals. However, how THA affects muscle quality, as determined by echo intensity (EI), is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to determine the long-term characteristics of EI, muscle quantity, muscle function, and physical functions in the patients with THA surgery. In order to achieve the purpose, we performed two comparison. First, we compared muscle EI, quantity and function in operated leg with unoperated legs in the same patients and with the legs of healthy adults (i.e., both unoperated legs). Second, we compared physical functional tests between THA patient and age and body composition matched controls. Twenty-two older individuals (age: 67.1 ± 5.3 years, height: 160.9 ± 7.1 cm, body mass: 62.6 ± 16.1 kg) who underwent unilateral THA several (5.2 ± 3.1) years ago (THA group) and 22 healthy controls with matching age and body composition (age: 68.3 ± 4.4 years, height: 160.3 ± 7.9 cm, body mass: 61.7 ± 7.8 kg) (CON group) participated in this case-control study. EI, an index of muscle quality, and muscle thickness (MT), an index of muscle quantity, were measured from B-mode transverse images of the rectus femoris obtained through ultrasound. The maximal isometric knee extension torque was measured in both the operated and unoperated legs in the THA group and in the right leg in the CON group (control leg); physical function tests, such as sit-to-stand, walking speed, hip adduction, and abduction torque assessments, were performed in both groups. MT and maximal isometric knee extension torque in operated leg were not different with unoperated, and control legs; the EI in the operated leg was significantly higher than that in the control leg (106.9 ± 16.9 vs. 92.4 ± 21.0 a.u., P < 0.05). The THA group demonstrated slower walking speed and lower hip abduction torque than the CON group (walking speed: 1.3 ± 0.2 vs. 1.5 ± 0.2 m/s; hip abduction torque 1.2 ± 0.3 vs. 1.5 ± 0.5 Nm/kg, P < 0.05). Several years after THA, the operated legs completely recovered the same level of muscle quantity as that in healthy participants but with lower muscle quality and hip joint function. These defects may be associated with locomotive dysfunction in older THA patients.