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Hip replacement meets most patients’ expectations

December 15th, 2009

A study has found that the vast majority of patients who undergo hip replacement surgery are happy with the results.

Researchers at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York recruited 405 patients, all of whom were about to undergo total hip replacement, which is a common treatment option for people with severe osteoarthritis.

Patients – who had an average age of 66 years at the start of the study – were interviewed before their operation and asked to list their physical and psychological expectations.

They were then re-interviewed approximately four years after their operation and asked whether each of the expectations they had previously listed had been fulfilled.

Nearly half (43 per cent) of the patients said that all of their physical and psychological expectations had been completely fulfilled, while an extra 32 per cent revealed that all of their expectations had been somewhat fulfilled.

Overall, 87 per cent of expectations had been fulfilled and the researchers noticed that high levels of satisfaction tended to be reported by people who were young, employed, had a body mass index (BMI) of less than 35, had not developed a post-operative limp, and who had not experienced any complications.

Writing in the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, the study authors concluded: “Our findings may be useful for counselling patients and for providing a framework for using fulfilled expectations as another patient-centred outcome of total hip arthroplasty.”

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