Obesity: One of the reasons for knee dislocations and related complications

The knee dislocation and its complications are widespread like an epidemic in the United States, which is linked to obesity.

According to a study, the excessive body weight is one of the major reasons for the dislocation of knee and associated complications that result in the surgical removal of the limb.

Dr. Joey Johnson, Orthopedic Trauma Fellow, Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School, said that the complications and care cost for knee dislocation has increased due to the obesity. He also told that with the increase in the rate of obesity, the rate of knee dislocation has also increased. It was observed that with the increase in obesity in the patient, the problems related to this condition has also increased.

For validating this fact, a research was performed in which, the researchers considered more than 19,000 knee dislocation cases all over the U.S. for the duration between 2000-2012. It was observed that most of the people, who were obese were severely affected by the knee dislocation problems and this ratio almost doubled by that time; i.e., 8% in 2000 to 19% in 2000.

Obesity has some link with knee dislocation and this was reported by the research in the Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma. It was also mentioned that the knee dislocation, due to obesity, was also associated with the risk of injury of artery, which is located just behind the joint and this risk was found to be higher in obese people in comparison to those, who had normal body weight. This condition of knee dislocation is known as vascular injury that might result in the surgical removal of the leg; if not treated on time.

The severe complications of knee dislocation also contribute in the rise of hospitalization cost as a patient with vascular injury has to stay for an extra of one week in hospital than other patients.

The study author, Dr. Christopher Born, Professor of Orthopedics, Brown University, said, “That subset of obese patients who come in with complaint of knee pain need to be carefully evaluated so as not to miss a potentially catastrophic vascular injury”. The researcher also suggested that reducing weight would help in the reduction of knee dislocation cases.