High tibial osteotomy in obese patients: Is successful surgery enough for a good outcome?

Abstract Introduction Knee osteoarthritis is the most common articular pathology. High tibial osteotomy (HTO) is a frequently used treatment procedure in medial osteoarthritis of the knee joint. We aimed to reveal factors that affect clinical and radiologic outcomes by evaluating the efficacy of HTO in patients with BMI ≥30 kg/m2 who were not appropriate for prostheses considering their activity, degree of pain, and age. Material and method HTO was performed using the medial open wedge technique who presented to the orthopedics polyclinic with symptoms of knee pain, whose BMI was over 30 kg/m2. All patients were diagnosed as having mechanical axis deviation and isolated medial compartmental arthrosis between 2013 and 2015.The clinical and radiologic follow-ups of patients were performed on day 45, at month 3, month 6, and after 1 year. The knee scoring system from the American Knee Society (AKS), and range of motion (ROM) were used in the functional evaluation of the patients. Result Eighteen patients were included in the study. Thirteen patients (72.2%) were women and 5 (27.8%) were men. Preop axis score was found significantly lower compared with the axis scores at postop month 6 and in final follow-up, the postoperative final follow-up axis score was found significantly lower than the axis score at month 6 (p