Patients benefit from one-on-one education sessions and access to an informational web portal before undergoing knee or hip replacement surgery, according to a study at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.
Here are seven insights:
1. Researchers studied 126 patients who underwent knee or hip replacement for osteoarthritis.
2. All of the patients attended a group education class before surgery and then they were randomized into two separate groups.
3. Group one included 63 patients, each of whom attended a one-on-one education session with a physical therapist in addition to the group class. They were also given access to a web portal with additional information. The control group attended the group class and then received a booklet.
4. Around 70 percent of patients from the control group believed they could have benefited from additional education before surgery.
5. Patients who received one-on-one counseling needed fewer physical therapy sessions in the hospital before discharge and met physical therapy discharge criteria sooner.
6 HSS is implementing a new program that will include one-on-one counseling and informational web portal access for hip and knee replacement patients.
7. According to lead investigator Rupali Joshi, PT, PhD, the next step will be to test the usefulness of a similar program for patients undergoing other types of surgery.