Analysis of perioperative clinical features and complications after orthopaedic surgery in rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with tocilizumab in a real-world setting: results from the multicentre TOcilizumab in Perioperative Period (TOPP) study

Vol.23 No.3

Original Article

Authors

Shigeki Momohara¹ , Jun Hashimoto² , Hideki Tsuboi² , Hisaaki Miyahara³ , Natsuko Nakagawa⁴ , Atsushi Kaneko⁵ , Naoki Kondo⁶ , Hiroaki Matsuno⁷ , Takahiko Wada⁸ , Tohgo Nonaka⁹ , Katsuaki Kanbe¹⁰ , Haruki Takagi¹¹

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Institute of Rheumatology, Tokyo Women’s Medical University, 10-22 Kawada, Shinjuku, Tokyo 162-0054, Japan
Department of Rheumatology, National Hospital Organization Osaka Minami Medical Centre, Osaka, Japan
Department of Rheumatology, National Hospital Organization Kyushu Medical Centre, Fukuoka, Japan
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Kohnan Kakogawa Hospital, Hyougo, Japan
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, National Hospital Organization Nagoya Medical Centre, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata, Japan
Matsuno Clinic for Rheumatic Diseases, Toyama, Japan
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Kansai Medical University Hirakata Hospital, Osaka, Japan
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Kinki University School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Tokyo Women’s Medical University Medical Centre East, Tokyo, Japan
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Fukui Red Cross Hospital, Fukui, Japan
Niigata Rheumatic Centre, Niigata, Japan
Matsubara Mayflower Hospital, Hyougo, Japan
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Toho University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

Received:

22 March 2012

Accepted:

24 May 2012

Published online:

10 June 2012

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Abstract

Objective
To evaluate perioperative changes in rheumatoid　arthritis (RA) patients treated with tocilizumab. Methods We collected RA cases with tocilizumab and orthopaedic surgery from 1999 to 2010. Incidences of postoperative infections, delayed wound healing, and RA symptom flare-ups were extracted from the data for comparison with patients without these postoperative events. We also evaluated the changes in C-reactive protein (CRP) and body temperature in patients without postoperative complications with normal CRP before surgery, i.e., patients without postoperative events in whom the tocilizumab level was maintained, for each duration to　discontinuation before surgery.
Results
A total of 161 cases (n = 122) were collected. The patients had mean age of 56.9 years, and mean disease duration of 12.8 years at operation. Joint replacement surgery was performed in 89 cases. Three patients had postoperative infections (two superficial and one organ/space surgical-site infection), 20 had delayed wound healing, and 36 had RA symptom flare-ups. Delayed wound healing occurred most commonly in patients who underwent spinal surgery (P = 0.0061, versus patients without delayed wound healing). CRP levels were high when tocilizumab was restarted in patients with RA symptom flare-ups (P = 0.0010, versus patients without RA symptom flare-ups). Increased postoperative CRP was observed in patients without postoperative events when the duration from final tocilizumab infusion to surgery was long. The changes in body temperature showed a similar trend to CRP.
Conclusions
Although it has been demonstrated that infection rates in patients treated with tocilizumab are by no means high, incidence of delayed wound healing was significantly higher in cases with surgical interventions such as foot and spinal surgeries. Many patients treated with tocilizumab remained in a normal range of CRP even during the perioperative period. For prevention of perioperative complications, observation of postoperative conditions and surgical wounds, and subjective symptoms of patients are considered important.

Key words

Orthopaedic surgery, Rheumatoid arthritis, Surgical-site infection (SSI), Tocilizumab, Wound healing