Taking prescription sleep medications within 90 days of knee replacement surgery may be linked to dislocations of the prostheses, revision surgery, falls, wrist fractures and visits to the emergency department, according to an April 4 report from Medscape.
The report was based on a study presented at the 2025 annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Here are five things to know about sleep medications’ impact on knee replacements:
1. Insomnia is common following total knee replacements, but sleep medications may have an adverse impact.
2. Researchers looked at 149,627 patients who underwent primary knee replacement from 2011 to 2022 and took sleep medications within 90 days post-operation.
3. A control group was made up of 1,080,655 patients who did not take sleep medications after surgery.
4. Researchers analyzed the effects of daridorexant, eszopiclone, zolpidem, doxepin and ramelteon.
5. Patients who used any of these drugs within 90 days after a total knee replacement had a 19% increased risk for falls, 17% greater revision surgery risk and a 45% higher chance of wrist fractures.
