Abstract
Background
Cannabis use disorder (CUD) is increasingly encountered, but its association with outcomes after knee arthroscopy is unclear.
Purpose/Hypothesis
To compare postoperative complications, healthcare utilization, and subsequent procedures after primary knee arthroscopy in patients with versus without CUD. We hypothesized that CUD would be associated with higher complication, healthcare utilization, and reoperation rates.
Methods
A retrospective multicenter cohort study was performed. Patients undergoing primary knee arthroscopy from 2015 to 2025 were identified. CUD was defined by preoperative diagnoses of cannabis use, abuse, and/or dependence. Exclusion criteria included prior knee surgery, corticosteroid injection within 3 months, or <1 year follow-up. Propensity score matching (1:1) was performed based on demographics, comorbidities, and index procedure(s). Outcomes were 90-day and 1-year rates of surgical and medical complications, including infection and reoperation. Statistical significance was determined using odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
Results
Among 3810 patients with CUD and 213,560 without CUD meeting eligibility criteria, 3805 per group were matched. At 90 days, CUD was associated with increased odds of surgical site infection (OR 2.189; 95% CI 1.071–4.476), wound complications (OR 2.143; 95% CI 1.159–3.964), oral antibiotic prescription (OR 1.468; 95% CI 1.260–1.710), emergency department visits (OR 2.036; 95% CI 1.748–2.372), and hospital admissions (OR 1.651; 95% CI 1.251–2.179). At 1 year, CUD was associated with increased odds of irrigation and debridement (OR 2.175; 95% CI 1.096–4.316), repeat knee arthroscopy (OR 1.285; 95% CI 1.061–1.557), anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (1.448; 95% CI 1.007–2.084), and meniscectomy (OR 1.555; 95% CI 1.173–2.061).
Conclusion
Preoperative CUD was associated with increased infection-related complications, unplanned healthcare utilization, and subsequent knee procedures after primary knee arthroscopy.
Introduction
Cannabis is the most commonly used federally illicit substance in the United States (US). Cannabis use disorder (CUD) is defined as a maladaptive pattern of cannabis use leading to clinically significant impairment or distress, and CUD diagnosis continues to rise yearly in the context of recent state-level legalization and increasing commercialization.1–3 In orthopedic populations, the proportion of patients carrying a CUD diagnosis has increased over time. For example, among primary total joint arthroplasty (TJA) inpatients, the prevalence of CUD increased over fivefold from 0.05% in 2006 to 0.26% in 2015. 4 Given the rise in prevalence of this condition among orthopedic patients, there is growing interest in further characterizing the risk associated with CUD in the context of orthopedic procedures.
A growing body of evidence has linked CUD with adverse perioperative outcomes. Large cohort studies report higher perioperative morbidity and mortality in surgical patients with CUD and increased odds of postoperative myocardial infarction after major elective operations.5,6 Within orthopedics, several database and review studies suggest that cannabis exposure is associated with elevated complications after total joint arthroplasty; For example, a 2024 systematic meta-analysis of TJA found higher odds of deep vein thrombosis, revision, and cardiopulmonary complications among cannabis users and a second meta-analysis concluded that a history of cannabis use increases prosthetic, systemic, and thromboembolic complications and transfusion after TJA.7,8 Analyses also report increased venous thromboembolism, readmissions, and costs after primary TKA in patients with CUD, 9 and higher early revision risk after TKA among cannabis users, with infection the leading indication for revision. 10 On the contrary, Jennings et al. found no difference in short-term outcomes after TKA 11 while Hedge et al. found lower rates of persistent opioid use after TJA among self-reported cannabis users, 12 underscoring heterogeneity across studies looking at the impact of CUD in total joint arthroplasty. Evidence specific to arthroscopy is comparatively sparse. In shoulder arthroscopy, preoperative substance use disorders, particularly cannabis, have been associated with increased 90-day complications and greater risks of revision or conversion to arthroplasty. 13 Whether similar risks are observed after knee arthroscopy, a high-volume orthopedic procedure, remains unclear.
To address this gap, we conducted a retrospective, propensity-matched cohort study to evaluate the rate of surgical and medical complications, healthcare utilization, and subsequent operative procedures at 90 days and 1 year in knee arthroscopy patients. The purpose of this study was to clarify whether CUD influenced outcomes of knee arthroscopy. We hypothesized that CUD would be associated with higher rates of surgical and medical complications, as well as increased healthcare utilization and need for reoperation, at both 90-days and 1-year. Understanding these associations will become increasingly important for surgeons serving a population base that is experiencing rising rates of CUD amid expanding cannabis legalization.
Methods
Data source
This study utilized the TriNetX United States Collaborative Network (TriNetX LLC, Cambridge, MA), a federated health data platform that provides access to data aggregated from over 70 participating healthcare organizations across the United States, comprising more than 120 million patient records. Patient information is supplemented with claims from government and private payors, providing data regarding procedures, diagnoses, medications, and laboratory values. All data in the TriNetX platform is de-identified per the de-identification standard defined in Section §164.514(a) of the HIPAA Privacy Rule (19). Accordingly, this study is exempt from informed consent and institutional review board approval. This study adhered to the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines.
Cohort identification
The network was queried for patients undergoing a primary knee arthroscopy procedure from October 1st, 2015, to October 1st, 2025 using International Classification of Diseases-10th Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) and Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) coding. This included all major codes for arthroscopic knee procedures, including meniscectomy, anterior cruciate ligament repair, posterior cruciate ligament repair, synovectomy, lateral release, lysis of adhesions, and others. A complete list of the codes used for cohort identification can be found in Supplemental Table 1. Patients were excluded if they had any prior knee surgery, a corticosteroid injection within 3 months of the index event, or less than 1 year of database presence postoperatively. Patients meeting criteria were then stratified by the presence or absence of a cannabis use, cannabis abuse, and/or cannabis dependence diagnosis (collectively defined in ICD-10 terminology as cannabis use disorders (CUD)) preoperatively. Prior to analysis, cohort characteristic variables were collected regarding demographics (age, sex and race), index arthroscopic knee procedure(s) underwent, and diagnoses of diabetes mellitus, obesity, tobacco use.
Primary analysis
Patients with a history of CUD undergoing the index procedures were propensity score matched to patients without a CUD diagnosis by age, gender, medical comorbidities including diabetes mellitus, obesity, and tobacco use. Patients were also matched according to the specific knee arthroscopic procedure(s) they underwent, as well as concomitant high tibial osteotomies. Using these matched cohorts, 90-day and one-year medical and surgical outcomes were evaluated. Primary outcomes consisted of 90-day surgical complications, including surgical site infection, wound complications, arthrofibrosis and manipulations under anesthesia (MUA), septic arthritis, and reoperation, including irrigation and debridement (I&D) and subsequent knee arthroscopy (including ACL reconstruction, PCL reconstruction, diagnostic arthroscopy, meniscectomy, meniscus repair, lysis of adhesions, drilling or loose body removal for osteochondritis dissecans, and arthroscopy for infection, synovectomy, and chondroplasty). Other primary outcomes of interest were one-year rates of arthrofibrosis, MUA, wound complications, removal of implant, graft rupture, and reoperation.
Secondary outcomes of interest were 90-day rates of healthcare utilization and medical complications, including hospital admissions, emergency department visits, lower-extremity thromboembolism, urinary tract infection, acute renal failure, pneumonia, myocardial infarction, pulmonary embolism, vomiting, and postoperative delirium. ICD-10 and CPT coding used to define outcomes of interest can be found in Supplemental Table 3.
Statistical analysis
Descriptive statistics were used to summarize baseline cohort characteristics. Continuous variables were presented as means ± standard deviations and compared using Student’s t-test, while categorical variables were presented as frequencies and percentages and compared using chi-square tests. Statistical significance for these comparisons was held at p < 0.00143 following Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. For primary and secondary outcomes of interest, univariate analyses with logistic regressions on matched cohorts were conducted to produce odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CI). All statistical analyses were performed using the TriNetX in-suite analytic software. E-values were calculated to estimate the strength of association an unmeasured confounder would need to fully explain away the observed associations; this analysis assessed the robustness of findings to residual confounding not addressed by propensity score matching.
Results
Matching
A total of 3,810 patients with cannabis use disorder (CUD) and 213,560 patients without CUD undergoing knee arthroscopy met inclusion and exclusion criteria. Prior to matching, CUD patients were younger, more likely to be male, and demonstrated higher rates of tobacco use, diabetes, and obesity. After propensity score matching, two well-balanced cohorts of 3,805 patients each were obtained (Supplemental Table 2; Supplemental Figure 1).
90-Day outcomes
Surgical complications
Comparison of 90-day complications between cannabis use disorder and control cohort.
- Denotes patient outcome count too low to report. Bold values indicate statistically significant odds ratios.
Medical complications & healthcare utilization
Rates of hospital admissions (OR 1.651, 95% CI 1.251-2.179), pneumonia, (OR 2.207, 95% CI 1.044-4.667), emergency department visits (OR 2.036, 95% CI 1.748-2.372) were significantly increased among CUD patients. Rates of lower extremity thromboembolism, urinary tract infection, acute renal failure, and sepsis were not significantly different. Postoperative delirium, pulmonary embolism, vomiting, and myocardial infarction could not be compared due to inherently low outcome counts triggering TriNetX privacy censoring (Table 1).
Subsequent procedures
CUD patients had higher rates of diagnostic knee arthroscopy (OR 1.835, 95% CI 1.102-3.07) and synovectomy (OR 1.568, 95% CI 1.111-2.214). Rates of manipulation under anesthesia, arthroscopy for infection, and chondroplasty did not differ significantly. I&D, implant removal, diagnostic arthroscopy, PCLR, meniscus repair, lysis of adhesions, drilling/loose body removal for OCD, arthroscopy for infection, menisectomy, and MUA could not be compared due to inherently low outcome counts triggering censoring of reporting as a TriNetX patient privacy measure (Table 1).
1-Year outcomes
Surgical complications
Comparison of one-year complications between cannabis use disorder and control cohort.
- Denotes patient outcome count too low to report.
* OCD = osteochondritis dissecans. Bold values indicate statistically significant odds ratios.
Subsequent procedures
At 1 year, patients with CUD demonstrated higher rates of I&D (OR 2.175, 95% CI 1.096–4.316), overall subsequent knee arthroscopy (OR 1.285, 95% CI 1.061–1.557), ACL reconstruction (OR 1.448, 95% CI 1.007–2.084), and meniscectomy (OR 1.555, 95% CI 1.173–2.061). In contrast, MUA was performed less often among CUD patients compared with controls (OR 0.498, 95% CI 0.249–0.998). Rates of subsequent removal of implants, meniscus repair, lysis of adhesions, arthroscopic synovectomy, and arthroscopic chondroplasty did not significantly differ between groups. Subsequent diagnostic arthroscopy, drilling or loose body removal for osteochondritis dissecans, and arthroscopy for infection could not be assessed due to inherently low event counts that triggered censoring under TriNetX patient privacy safeguards (Table 2).
Discussion
In this retrospective cohort study of knee arthroscopy patients, we found that a diagnosis of cannabis use disorder (CUD) was associated with higher rates of several adverse outcomes compared to matched controls. Our results contribute to the expanding corpus of evidence that cannabis use can negatively impact surgical recovery, specifically extending these concerns to minimally invasive orthopedic procedures.
Most notably, our study found that patients diagnosed with CUD demonstrated significantly higher rates of postoperative infections and wound complications following knee arthroscopy. Specifically, within 90 days, the CUD cohort had approximately twice the odds of wound complications and surgical site infection. Of note, CUD patients in our study also demonstrated higher rates of postoperative antibiotic prescriptions within 90 days of surgery, corroborating diagnoses of infections or wound complications. They also had higher odds of undergoing irrigation and debridement procedures within 1 year; a reoperation typically performed for deep infections or persistent wound complications. Taken together, these results may indicate that patients with CUD are at an increased risk of developing infections and wound complications following knee arthroscopy procedures. This finding is consistent with prior orthopedic studies. Law et al. reported that cannabis use was associated with an increased risk of early revision surgery after total knee arthroplasty, with periprosthetic joint infection identified as the leading cause for revision. 10 Likewise, Raso et al. found that, in arthroscopic rotator cuff repair, patients with CUD had higher 90-day complication rates and a greater rate of reoperation or conversion to arthroplasty within 1 year. 13 Further emphasizing this point, several preclinical studies have demonstrated that chronic, high-dose cannabis exposure can effectively dampen cell-mediated immunity, alter cytokine signaling, and impair wound-healing pathways, possibly explaining our findings of heightened postoperative wound complications in CUD patients.14–16 Our results in knee arthroscopy suggest that even in less invasive procedures, CUD may predispose patients to impaired wound healing or susceptibility to infection.
We also observed a markedly higher utilization of healthcare services among CUD patients following knee arthroscopy. Within 90 days, patients with CUD had more than twice the odds of an emergency department visit and significantly higher hospital readmission rates compared to those without CUD. These findings align with previous reports that link cannabis use to increased postoperative resource utilization in other orthopedic procedures. Gordon et al. reported that among patients undergoing fracture repair, those with CUD had significantly greater 90-day complication rates and nearly double the rates of emergency department visits and hospital readmissions as compared to those without CUD. 17 In joint arthroplasty populations, Vakharia et al. similarly found that CUD was associated with higher 90-day readmission rates after total knee replacement. 9 Our data extend these observations to arthroscopic knee surgery, suggesting that the presence of a CUD could potentially predispose patients to return for urgent care more frequently, even after low-risk procedures. The heightened postoperative healthcare utilization observed in CUD patients is likely driven by a multifactorial interplay of factors, including higher rates of medical and surgical complications, psychosocial stressors, lower adherence to postoperative protocols, and altered pain responses associated with chronic cannabis exposure.
Our analysis also found that patients with CUD underwent significantly more subsequent knee procedures. At 90 days postoperatively, the CUD group had higher rates of meniscectomy and any knee arthroscopy. By 1 year, CUD patients similarly had elevated odds of overall subsequent knee arthroscopy, ACL reconstruction, and meniscectomy relative to non–CUD patients. These findings are consistent with emerging literature that links CUD to worse orthopedic outcomes, particularly as it pertains to reoperations.7,13 In contrast to these trends, our analysis found that the odds of undergoing manipulation under anesthesia were significantly lower in the CUD cohort. The reduced MUA rate in our CUD group may reflect cannabis’ anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic effects; Preclinical and clinical reports indicate cannabinoids suppress fibrotic signaling and inflammation, which could mitigate postoperative arthrofibrosis and thereby lower the need for MUA. 18 Overall, our findings of higher knee re-interventions but fewer stiffness-related procedures in the CUD cohort are congruent with the literature that CUD augments postoperative complications and reoperations in orthopedic surgery, while possibly imparting an anti-fibrotic effect that reduces joint stiffness.
Collectively, these findings carry important clinical implications for preoperative counseling and risk stratification in arthroscopic knee surgery. They underscore that CUD may be regarded as a notable comorbidity capable of elevating postoperative complication risks. With the increasing prevalence of CUD in orthopedic populations amid broader cannabis legalization, surgeons are likely to encounter such patients more frequently. Accordingly, individuals with CUD should be informed of their heightened susceptibility to wound healing issues, infections, and other complications. Our results reinforce this guidance specifically for ambulatory sports medicine interventions.
Limitations and future directions
This study has several limitations that warrant consideration. As a retrospective analysis of an electronic health record database, our ability to draw causal inferences is inherently limited. Although we employed propensity score matching to balance key confounders, including tobacco use, age, demographics, and procedure type, residual confounding from unmeasured or incompletely captured variables such as concurrent substance use, psychiatric comorbidities, socioeconomic status, and baseline healthcare utilization remains possible. To clarify the potential impact of unmeasured confounding, E-values were reported for all results, demonstrating moderate to strong robustness for all statistically significant observations. Notably, our identification of CUD relied on diagnostic coding, which can be inconsistent across providers and prone to under-capturing diagnoses due to incomplete reporting or documentation. Accordingly, because of this potential for misclassifying true CUD patients as non-CUD, the magnitude of increased odds for certain postoperative outcomes is likely underestimated. Additionally, the definition of CUD in our study does not capture the quantity, frequency, or mode of cannabis use, precluding the analysis of dose-dependent effects. Data on the severity of dependence or time of last use were also unavailable, and these factors could influence outcomes. Our dataset further lacked granular details such as intraoperative variables, which could modulate complication risks and affect the interpretation of our findings. The absence of laterality modifiers in the database limited our ability to distinguish ipsilateral revision knee arthroscopic procedures from primary contralateral procedures. Despite these limitations, our study provides important new evidence regarding the impact of cannabis use disorder on surgical outcomes in sports medicine. Our results contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of cannabis use in orthopedic surgery and reinforce the need for continued investigation into how cannabis legalization and increasing use will impact surgical care and patient health. Additionally, these results reinforce the need for prospective and mechanistic trials to confirm these associations and the mechanisms that underlie them.
Conclusion
In this retrospective cohort study, 3,805 patients with a diagnosis of CUD undergoing knee arthroscopy were compared to a matched cohort and found to have greater odds of postoperative infection, wound complications, and increased healthcare utilization. These findings suggest that CUD may represent an underrecognized risk factor for adverse outcomes in knee arthroscopy. The increase in medical and surgical complications, readmissions, and antibiotic use highlights the need for heightened perioperative evaluation and patient specific care when planning knee arthroscopy in this population. As cannabis use continues to rise nationwide, orthopedic surgeons should consider additional screening and preoperative counseling as part of their preoperative assessment. Future prospective studies are warranted to elucidate the biological and behavioral mechanisms underlying these identified complications and to develop strategies to mitigate postoperative risk in this growing patient population.
Supplemental material
Supplemental material - Cannabis use is associated with increased postoperative complications and healthcare utilization following knee arthroscopy: A propensity-matched cohort study
Supplemental material for Cannabis use is associated with increased postoperative complications and healthcare utilization following knee arthroscopy: A propensity-matched cohort study by Nicholas C. Bank, William R. Davis, Bradley J. Lauck, Christopher Reynolds, Kyle Wallace, R. Alexander Creighton, Ganesh V. Kamath in Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery
Footnotes
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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References
Supplementary Material
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