Patient compliance with hip precautions 12 weeks following primary elective total hip arthroplasty

• Published in: Archives of orthopaedic and trauma surgery Vol. 142; no. 10; pp. 2429 - 2433
• Main Authors: McNaught, Jamie, Davidson, Deborah, Ewen, Alistair, Welsh, Findlay, Maheshwari, Rohit
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.10.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Activities of daily living; Joint replacement surgery; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Orthopaedic Surgery; Orthopedics; Patient compliance; Questionnaires; Compliance; Precautions; Hip arthroplasty; Dislocation
• ISSN: 1434-3916; 0936-8051; 1434-3916
• DOI: 10.1007/s00402-021-03837-9

Introduction Patients are routinely advised to follow hip precautions following their total hip arthroplasty (THA) surgery. There is lack of evidence regarding compliance with these precautions and when patients return to activities of daily living following their surgery. Materials and methods We designed a new questionnaire to discover when patients return to their activities of daily living. Two hundred and ninety seven consecutive patients who attended 12 week follow up arthroplasty clinic following their primary elective THA were asked to complete the questionnaire. Results All patients who attended the follow up clinic at 12 weeks responded to the questionnaire. Only 6.3% ( n  = 19) of the patients reported that they restricted their daily activities, as prescribed for the full 12 week period, while 50% ( n  = 148) of patients stopped using prescribed adaptive equipment by 6 weeks after their operation. There were no dislocations recorded among the study group. Conclusion We found that the majority of patients do not adhere to hip precautions advice. They return to their activities of daily living prior to the end of prescription period based on their pain and activity level. Lack of adherence to hip precautions do not predispose to hip dislocation in the immediate post-operative period.