Clinical Profile of Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis at a Government Hospital in Eastern Nepal

Medical, Orthopaedics

Introduction: Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the leading causes of pain and disability in old age worldwide. Its prevalence increases with age, is fairly more common in females than males and is strongly associated with heavy physical activities which are usually required to earn livelihood in most of the developing countries. There is very limited data on the prevalence of knee OA from Nepal. This study aims to elaborate on the demographic and clinical profile of patients with knee OA presenting to the Orthopaedics Outpatient Department (OPD) of Koshi Hospital. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional observational study was carried out in 280 patients who were diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis presenting to orthopaedics outpatient department of Koshi Hospital between January 2023 to December 2024. Demographics including age, sex, occupation, BMI, clinical findings including pain and stiffness and radiographic grading were recorded. Results: In this study, females were more commonly affected than males. Most commonly affected age group was 60-70 years (34.3%). Farmers had more prevalence followed by labourers. 68(24.3%) patients had some form of previous knee trauma. Pain was the most common presenting complaints followed by swelling and stiffness. 55% of patients were overweight (BMI-25-9.9), 36% normal weight (BMI-20-24.9) and 12.5% were obese (BMI>30). Radiologically, most of the patients were categorized as Kellgren and Lawrence grade II and III Conclusion: Knee osteoarthritis is a common cause of morbidity throughout the world. It is more common in elderly and frequency increases with age. Females are more affected than males and is more common in heavy workers.

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