QUALITY OF LIFE PARAMETERS IMPROVEMENT FOLLOWING TOTAL HIP REPLACEMENT

Large joint replacement regarding lower limbs include hip and knee arthroplasty surgical procedures, meant toimprove Quality Of Life (QOL) parameters, an optimal representation for patient recovery toward an independent lifestyle. The present study is a consequence of an imperative requirement from the nursing staff, which, in closecooperation with the surgeon, the physical therapist and the psychologist intend a better understanding regardingpatient perception of the so-called post-discharge health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Material and method: Ourstudy included a pilot retrospective study performed on a group of 26 patients investigated and operated for total hipreplacement, between June 2010 – June 2011 in the Orthopaedic Clinic in the Rehabilitation Hospital in Iasi, Romania.We have evaluated QOL by applying a WOMAC scoring system and questionnaire to this group of patiens. We haveobtained data from those patients in preoperative step but also at 3 months postoperatively. All patients in this studywere operated by the same orthopaedic surgeon and followed the same rehabilitation program started during hospitalstay and continued under thorough supervision at home or in hospital linked institutions. Preoperative andpostoperative at 3 months data were reported and gathered for each patient in the form of Western Ontario andMcMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) scores. Results: Following this evaluation we have looked foreach main index correlation in the WOMAC pre and postoperatively. For the pain item correlations we have obtained a0.617 between preoperative and 3 months postoperative pain. For the stiffness item correlations we have obtained a0.071 between preoperative and 3 months postoperative stiffness. For the functionality item correlations we haveobtained a 0.808 between preoperative and 3 months postoperative pain.