The study focusing on the tissue adhesive in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) was rare. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical outcomes and economic costs of tissue adhesive when acting as the adjunct to standard incision closure in TKA.
From September 2019 to November 2019, we prospectively enrolled the consecutive patients who underwent simultaneous bilateral TKA in our institute. The allocation using the tissue adhesive was done after the subcuticular suture in right knee first and another method was applied in the left knee automatically. The patients’ demographics, length of stay (LOS), times of dressing changes and incision-related cost, range of motion (ROM), incision-related complications and incision evaluation scores were recorded.
Thirty-two patients were enrolled in this study and followed at two months after surgery. In the knees of tissue adhesive, the times of dressing change and patient scar assessment scores (PSAS) were significantly less than those standard skin closure (p=0.000; p=0.003). Although there were no significant differences of the delayed discharge, incision-related cost, ROM, incision-related complications and Vancouver scar score (VSS) between two groups, 65.6% (21/32) patients preferred the tissue adhesive and only 15.6% (5/32) patients preferred the standard incision closure.