Author(s)

Steven Furney¹, Natasha Montez²

¹Department of Health and Human Performance, Texas State University, San Marcos, USA.
²Invictus Health Solutions, New Braunfels, USA.

As patients prepare for total-knee arthroplasty surgery, they have many expectations related to their long-term recovery and function. This research examined whether the use of a pre-surgical patient education class with an additional long-term expectation module addressing recovery during the first 12 months after surgery was more effective in modifying participant’s pre-surgical expectations than participants receiving the standard pre-surgical education class alone. Prior to the class each participant completed one disease-specific instrument, a general-health survey, and a total-knee replacement expectation survey. After the class, each participant once again completed the total-knee replacement survey. Included in the study were 42 participants who were enrolled in a pre-surgical education course that was randomized. The participants in the control group received the standard pre-surgical education addressing pre-surgical topics. The participants in the intervention group received the standard pre-surgical education plus an additional module that specifically addressed long-term recovery and function up to 12 months post surgery. The primary outcome of the data revealed that participants’ who received the standard pre-surgical education with the additional module and who had an educational level higher than highschool, had expectations that were able to be modified to coincide with the surgeons’ expectations.

Osteoarthritis, Total-Knee Arthroplasty, Pre-Surgical Education, Patient Expectations

Furney, S. and Montez, N. (2015) The Effects of Pre-Surgical Education on Patient Expectations in Total Knee Arthroplasties. Open Journal of Preventive Medicine, 5, 449-455. doi: 10.4236/ojpm.2015.512050.