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Study: Patients still want improved function within 1 year of THA
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In this study, researchers from Norway found that patient desires before and after total hip arthroplasty concerned improvements and participation in activities. They noted these desires remain the same in the first year after surgery.
“Linking patients’ responses to the [International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health] ICF showed a decrease in number of desires over time, and the most frequent functional improvements desired by the patients both before and [at] 1 year after [total hip arthroplasty] THA were walking, moving around and participating in rather demanding recreation and leisure activities,” Arne Ekeland, MD, PhD, and colleagues wrote. “In the early postoperative phase, on the other hand, the described pattern of the patients’ desires changed and they were more concerned about improving temporary limitations in physical functioning. The improvements desired by the patients were not covered in the most widely used disease-specific questionnaires.”
Ekeland and colleagues prospectively asked 64 patients before surgery, at 3-month follow-up and at 12-month follow-up about their desires after undergoing THA. The patients’ mean age was 65 years.
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Based on the abstract, 88% of the patients’ answers were within the Activities and Participation component of the questionnaire that Ekeland and colleagues used, which included walking, moving around, recreation and leisure, and dressing. At 3 months after THA, fewer patients were reporting answers from the Recreation and Leisure component of the questionnaire and more of them were concerned with being able to dress themselves.
“At 12 months, these patients no longer seemed to have difficulty with dressing and climbing stairs,” Ekeland and colleagues wrote. “However, just like before surgery many of the patients expressed a desire for further improvements classified into the recreation and leisure category.”
Disclosure: The authors have no relevant financial disclosures.
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