Outcome measures for elective orthopaedic surgery

I am looking to replace our assesment for for our orthopaedic department, and i have become stuck when it comes to appropriate outcome measures for orthaopaedic surgery. The main problem seems to be the patients generally come into hospital better than when they leave (at least functionally).
Any ideas?!?
Hope you guys can help.

Owen Harris

try this: use the patient's condition immedeately AFTER the surgery as baseline, instead of befor the surgery.
neving

[alophysio]

I agree with Neving!

I have always used the pre-surgery condition as the first goal to attain (since surgery is not meant to make them worse ) then set new goals to achieve functional / ADL / sports goals...

[kal]

Peter Mcnair PHD and Lecturer at AUT in Auckland NZ has developed a great assessment tool for lower limb function in two parts first Activities of Daily Living and second recrational activity scaling baseline tasks, its application before and after surgery and over time provided scores out of 40... the progression is clear and may be what you are looking for . I recommend you seek his permission to look at it and use it to develop your own.I am sorry I don't know his email address but you should be able to find him via google. Good luck

[morwenna]

Originally Posted by Owen Harris

I am looking to replace our assesment for for our orthopaedic department, and i have become stuck when it comes to appropriate outcome measures for orthaopaedic surgery. The main problem seems to be the patients generally come into hospital better than when they leave (at least functionally).
Any ideas?!?
Hope you guys can help.

Owen Harris

Your outcome measures for in-patient orthopaedic patients could end at the time of discharge. ie that they can be safely independent in transfers and self-care and on the stairs, and able to walk eg 100 meters with appropriate assistive devices depending on their weight-bearing status. Then you score them from eg 1-5 where 1 = no goals met and 5 = all goals met. Also you should include length of stay in your outcomes I guess.

Then you set new goals and devise new outcome measures for their rehab. You can use such tools as the Oxford Scale for knees and the Harris Hip score or the WOMAC or Short Form 36 assessments, for example. There are probably outcome measures for ankles/feet etc, but we only measure hips and knees!!

[linbin]

hi
there are lots of joint specific and condition specific scales-if interested give your mail id here,i have some
cheers