Two Cases of High Tibial Osteotomy in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Treated with Biologic Disease-modifying Anti-rheumatic Drugs.

Abstract

High tibial osteotomy (HTO) procedure is generally contraindicated in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients because synovial inflammation may exacerbate joint damage post-surgery. The natural course of joint destruction in RA changed dramatically with new treatment strategies and the introduction of biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (bDMARDs). We report the cases of two RA patients who underwent HTO and whose disease activities were well controlled by bDMARDs. Despite their short follow-up periods, they showed acceptable objective and subjective clinical results. We believe that the combination of bDMARDs and HTO can be indicated for selected RA patients before total knee arthroplasty.