Patients and knee specialists have different ideas about the definition of ‘a poor outcome’ after knee replacement surgery. This is evident from the dissertation of Malou te Molder, who received his PhD from Radboud University in Nijmegen on April 25..
In patients who receive a knee replacement, 1 in 5 experiences a poor outcome. For example, they still have a lot of pain after the procedure, cannot walk properly or feel unstable in the knee.
Te Molder’s dissertation shows that there is no international agreement between patients and knee specialists on how a poor outcome after a knee prosthesis procedure can best be measured.
This makes it difficult to determine the number of patients who experience a poor outcome after knee replacement surgery. This also makes it difficult to compare results between knee specialists, hospitals, countries and over time. That makes it difficult to improve results.
Moreover, it appears that patients and knee specialists may have different ideas about the definition of a poor outcome. That is why Te Molder and her colleagues interviewed patients and examined the results of operations. The research shows that pain, daily functioning and satisfaction should be part of a definition for an unsuccessful knee replacement procedure.
Source:
Radboud University
Tags: consensus poor outcome knee arthroplasty
