A myth: orthopedic implant pain in cold weather.

Abstract

In daily practice, patients with orthopaedic implants complain of implant pain and cold sensation in the implant area in cold weather. The aim of this study is to obtain clearer information by comparing the effect of cold weather on orthopaedic implants with warm weather. This study was registered with clinicaltrials.gov. In this prospective study, 210 patients with orthopaedic implants were included. Patients' complaints during cold weather (<8 °C) and warm weather (>25 °C), precautions taken against these complaints, range of motion (ROM), visual analogue score (VAS), and pain catastrophizing scale (PCS) scores were evaluated. Pain was detected in 59.5% of the patients in cold weather and 17.6% in warm weather. 32.4% of the patients had cold sensation/inability to warm up and 25.2% of the patients took preventive measures against these complaints. Implant type and gender did not affect the scores. Pain in cold weather is present in 60% of patients with post-traumatic orthopaedic implants. Implants in the lower extremities cause more limitations in patients compared to those in the upper extremities. However, these cold weather-related complaints do not affect functional scores and result in joint range of motion loss in only a limited number of patients.