Ok lets get back to some clinical issues.
We are trying to set up some standards based on evidence Based Practice for
the main conditions refered to us. My team mainly looks after the
orthopaedic ward patients and lower limb problems as out patients. We have
decided our "runners" will therefore be OA knees, total hip replacements and
anterior cruciate injuries/reconstruction (although AKP came close here.
In the case of the THR I think we will not find a lot about rehabilitation
in articles so what do people do with their THR's, I'd be especially
interested in seeing how many centres bring them back as outpatients for
treatment. We have started to invite all the younger, or young at heart pts
back for some hydrotherapy followed later on by some gym work and it is
working really well. They are a great set of patients to work with that I
feel have previously been a bit negleted. Our next stage is to montor their
progress by using the Oxford 12 Item Hip score. i'm not sure if this is the
best outcome measure but it is easily self administered.
Another incidental thing we've noticed is that althoough we get alot of oour
Asian population coming in for knee replacements, we don't get many having
THRs - any thoughts why?
I hope this may stimulate the list back on to some more interesting
discussions - i too am fed up with the weather and film reviews!
Alison Dakin
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