Open AccessCan Vitamin D Mitigate Osteoarthritic Hip Joint Arthroplasty Infections Among Older Adults? A Narrative Overview of the Literature Amidst COVID-19 Lockdowns and Beyond
Author(s) -
Ray Marks
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of ageing research and healthcare
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2474-7785
DOI - 10.14302/issn.2474-7785.jarh-21-3702
Subject(s) - medicine , osteoarthritis , arthroplasty , context (archaeology) , joint arthroplasty , hip arthroplasty , joint replacement , narrative review , covid-19 , physical therapy , surgery , intensive care medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , disease , paleontology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , biology
BackgroundOlder adults with hip joint osteoarthritis, a major cause of chronic progressively disabling highly painful functional experiences, may require a surgical joint replacement procedure known as total joint arthroplasty surgery.ObjectiveThis review aimed to address the question of whether there an association between hip joint arthroplasty infection rates and prevailing pre or preoperative vitamin D levels that warrants consideration in efforts to prevent or minimize infection related hip arthroplasty complications among older adults particularly during the current ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsPUBMED, SCOPUS, and WEB OF SCIENCE articles related to the topic and published between January 2016-2021 were searched, examined, and summarized.ResultsOlder adults with hip joint osteoarthritis and low vitamin D serum levels who undergo total hip joint arthroplasty surgery may be at higher risk for post-operative infections than those with adequate vitamin D serum levels.ConclusionMore research to verify whether efforts to screen for, and maximize vitamin D levels, before and after surgery, as indicated, may be helpful in the context of minimizing total hip joint arthroplasty surgery infection susceptibility and severity among older vitamin D deficient severely disabled hip osteoarthritis cases.