Testosterone use before knee replacement was linked to more postoperative complications
A matched database study found higher odds of several complications among preoperative testosterone users, but the association does not establish that testosterone caused those outcomes.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
Patients recorded as using testosterone replacement before knee replacement had higher odds of several medical and implant-related complications afterward. Because the study was observational, the findings cannot determine whether testosterone itself explains the differences. The abstract also does not provide absolute event rates, which are needed to understand how often complications occurred.
Matching was used to balance the groups, but this observational comparison cannot establish causation. The abstract does not describe all matching factors or give absolute complication rates.
What researchers found
Infection involving the knee replacement
At 5 years, preoperative testosterone users had higher odds of periprosthetic joint infection than matched patients without preoperative use.
What the records compared
Researchers compared records from matched groups after primary knee replacement. They examined medical complications earlier after surgery and complications involving the replacement over longer follow-up, rather than testing a change in testosterone treatment.
Understanding the infection estimate
The reported infection estimate is an odds ratio, not an absolute risk or a count of additional infections. Without event rates, the practical size of the difference remains unclear.
The original publication
Preoperative Testosterone Replacement Therapy Is Associated With Increased Complication Risk After Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Propensity-Matched Analysis of 13,250 Patients.
Omurzakov A, Omurzakov AM, Bhatti P et al.
J Arthroplasty · 2026
- PubMed ID
- 41177190
- Record checked
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