Abstract
INTRODUCTION: This review aims to investigate the risk of infection in hepatitis B virus (HBV)- positive patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA) compared to non-infected individuals and to assess the functional outcomes of HBV-infected patients following TKA. METHODS: The study was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) 2020 statement. The protocol was registered on Prospero (CRD420250560976). Using the keywords, PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched for all relevant studies. RESULTS: Four studies were included, which were retrospective. Three hundred sixty-nine patients with HBV were pooled from the included studies, while 5018 patients served as the control group. A high degree of heterogeneity was noted among the studies in the meta-analysis (I(2) = 79.7 %, p = 0.0072). The overall proportion of complications in the HBV group was 11.2 % (95 % CI 2.3-25.4). No significant difference was noted among the groups regarding the rate of complications with an Odds ratio of 1.8 (95 % CI 0.3-8.8, p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: No significant difference was noted between HBV-positive and HBV-negative patients regarding the rate of complications. The limited number of comparative studies and their retrospective nature restrict the study's findings. From the limited data, the overall proportion of complications in the HBV group was 11.2 %. Patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA) should undergo a thorough pre-operative evaluation to assess their general well-being and identify any pre-existing health conditions that may increase the risk of complications post-operatively.