Among joint replacement patients with unexplained pain after surgery, women are more likely than men to test positive for sensitivity to metal used in joint implants, according to a study published in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery.
For the study, researchers examined data on 2,613 patients who underwent joint replacement procedures with metal-containing implants and were subsequently evaluated for unexplained postoperative joint pain. Approximately 60 percent of the patients were women.
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On a 10-point scale, women had an average pain score of 6.8, as compared to the average pain score for men, which was 6.1. The patients all underwent a blood test to evaluate sensitization to metals.
Around 49 percent of women tested positive for metal sensitization, as compared to 38 percent of men. Additionally, women tended to have a higher severity of metal sensitivity among those patients who tested positive.
"This supports both our hypothesis and previous reports that females may have a higher risk of adverse responses to implant metals," study authors wrote.