PhD Defence Sophie Vervullens

Keywords: Knee osteoarthritis, total knee arthroplasty, chronic postoperative pain, phenotypes 
 

"Heterogeneity in individuals with knee osteoarthritis awaiting total knee arthroplasty and its impact on outcome from a biopsychosocial perspective"
 

The main aim of this dissertation was to gain better insight in the heterogeneity in individuals with knee osteoarthritis (KOA), especially those awaiting total knee arthroplasty (TKA), and to investigate its impact on treatment outcome from a biopsychosocial perspective.  

Four chapters of this dissertation contain data of 223 individuals with KOA undergoing TKA from a multicentre study in four hospitals in Belgium and the Netherlands identifying subgroups and prognostic factors related to chronic pain after TKA. One chapter contains data of 599 individuals with osteoarthritis undergoing interdisciplinary multimodal pain treatment from another multicentre study in six clinics in rehabilitation centres in the Netherlands developing a clinical prediction model for treatment success. Last, two systematic reviews are included, one focusing on the evolution of somatosensory functioning in a musculoskeletal disorders population undergoing surgery, and one focusing on preoperative rehabilitation and its long-term outcome in individuals with KOA undergoing TKA. 

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