COMPARISON OF LEVEL OF ASSISTANCE AMONG DIABETIC AND NONDIABETIC AT THREE MONTHS OF BILATERAL TOTAL KNEE REPLACEMENT: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Background: Total knee replacement (TKR) is a common surgery for severe knee arthritis, mainly to reduce pain and help with movement. How well someone recovers after surgery can depend on things like age, other health issues, and whether they have diabetes. Diabetes can slow down how wounds heal, weaken muscles, and make it harder to recover, which might mean someone needs more help with everyday tasks. Aim: To understand how much assistance diabetic and non-diabetic patients need three months after having bilateral TKR, using the Modified Iowa Level of Assistance (mILOA) Scale. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study on 50 people aged 65 to 80 who had finished three months of recovery after bilateral TKR, divided in two groups- diabetic(n=25) and non-diabetic(n=25). The mILOA Scale was used to check how well they were able to function, and Mann-Whitney U test to analyze the data. Results: Among diabetic patients, 60% could do things on their own, while 16% needed someone nearby, and 8% each needed a little, some, or a lot of help. For non-diabetic patients, 84% were independent, and 8% each needed a little or just someone nearby. Even though non-diabetic patients did better, the difference wasn’t big enough to be statistically significant (p=0.12), but there was a small advantage for non-diabetic patients. Conclusion: Non-diabetic patients were slightly more independent three months after TKR compared to diabetic patients. Even though the difference wasn’t statistically significant, diabetes might still affect recovery. Starting physiotherapy early and keeping blood sugar under control could help diabetic patients do better. Keywords: Total knee replacement, Diabetes mellitus, Functional recovery, Level of assistance, Modified Iowa Level of Assistance Scale.