Hospital at home in elective total hip arthroplasty.
With the recent trend towards reducing hospital stay, it has become increasingly important to ensure that early patient discharge after total hip replacement is a safe practice. We evaluated complications and length of hospital stay associated with primary unilateral hip arthroplasty in 47 patients undergoing a new early discharge protocol consisting of at home based specialized care after hospital discharge. The mean length of stay (and standard deviation) in hospital was 4.59 ± 0.68. The mean length of stay of home-based hospitalization was 3.7 ± 1. The prevalence of postoperative complications was 12.8% and the readmission rate was 6.4%. We saw a reduction of hospital stay with no difference in outcomes in comparison with previous data. On the basis of our findings we recommend the use of the early discharge protocol following elective primary total hip replacement and ongoing evaluation of the process.
Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Hospital Clínic, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. gbori@clinic.ub.es
Guillem
G
Bori
Jesus
J
Aibar
Sarah
S
Lafuente
Xavier
X
Gallart
Silvia
S
Valls
Santiago
S
Suso
Carme
C
Hernandez
Josep
J
Riba
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D019644:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D017558:Elective Surgical Procedures / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D018575:Home Care Services, Hospital-Based; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000639:trends; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000639:trends; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome