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Patients return to work after total hip arthroplasty with preoperative function
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The majority of working-age patients can return to their jobs after total hip replacement procedures and perform their jobs at preoperative levels, according to a presenter at the SICOT XXV Triennial World Congress 2011.
“We decided to do the study, although there is various British literature that suggests that the operation was very successful and cost-effective in patients and the function improvements were cases where the literature would be with regard to return to sport and working,” Gareth Turnbull from the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, stated in his presentation.
Turnbull and his colleagues used the Grimby scale for physical activity to examine 250 patients younger than 65 years who had undergone a total hip replacement in order to find out how, when and to what extent patients were able to return to preoperative levels of work.
Patients returned to work at 13.9 weeks on average, with 78% of patients having no restrictions upon returning to their jobs, according to the abstract. Seven percent of patients had to be reassigned to a less physically demanding job.
Turnbull said that age and body mass index were significantly related to recovery time and return to work, while gender was not a factor. Less than half the patients could return to light exercise. No significant correlation was found between patients who reported a restriction at work and postoperative pain scores, SF12 scores, or Oxford hip scores, the authors wrote.
Reference:
- Turnbull G, Cowie J, Ker A, et al. Return to work after total hip replacement. What should we tell patients? Paper #28763. Presented at the SICOT XXV Triennial World Congress 2011. Sept 6-9. Prague.
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