Early Aggressive Treatment of Elderly RA Results in Less Joint Surgery Save
Two population-based cohorts from Ontario (ON) and Quebec (QC) were used to assess if early DMARD influenced the need for joint replacement surgery among elderly patients with incident rheumatoid arthritis.
Crude event rates for joint replacement surgery was 2.0 and 1.4 per 100 person-years, in ON and QC patients, respectively. First year exposure to MTX (HR 0.97, 95% CI 0.95-0.98) and other DMARD (HR 0.98, 95% CI 0.97-0.99) in the first year after diagnosis was associated with significantly longer times to joint replacement. This corresponded to a 2-3% decrease in surgery with each additional month of early use.
Early exposure to DMARD soon after RA diagnosis was resulted in a delayed need for joint replacement surgery.
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