title: Pre-operative patient education reduces length of stay after knee joint arthroplasty.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a pre-operative education programme on length of hospital stay after surgery for primary and revision knee arthroplasty patients. The programme was introduced at our hospital in October 2006 to encourage patients to play an active role in their recovery process after surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  A multidisciplinary team educated knee arthroplasty patients about their care pathway, knee surgery, pain management, expected discharge goals, in-patient and out-patient arthroplasty rehabilitation. Prospective data were collected from 472 consecutive patients who underwent (primary or revision) knee arthroplasty in the period between January 2006 and November 2007. Patients were separated into two groups, one that received conventional pre-operative treatment (n = 150; Conventional group) and another that received the pre-operative education (n = 322; Education group). Length of hospital stay was compare using the Mann Whitney U test. In-patient complications, hospital re-admissions within 24 h and 3 months of hospital discharge were compared using the chi-squared test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean length of stay was significantly reduced from 7 days in the Conventional group to 5 days in the Education group (P < 0.01). In addition, 20% more patients were discharged early (within 1-4 days) in the Education group compared to the Conventional group (P < 0.01). There was no difference in the percentage of in-patient complications and re-admissions in 24 h (P = 1.00) and 3 months of discharge (P = 0.92) between the two groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest that pre-operative education is a safe and effective method of reducing length of stay for knee arthroplasty patients.
authors.affiliation: North East Orthopaedic and Sports Injury Group, Department of Orthopaedics, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead, UK.
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alnaib
authors.forename: Michail
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kokkinakis
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wilkinson
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: St Clair Gibson
authors.forename: Deiary
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kader
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D019645:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee / Q000534:rehabilitation* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D015397:Program Evaluation