Yoeri Bemelmans

Patient information in knee arthroplasty 21 2 Introduction Patient information holds an important role in knee arthroplasty (KA) surgery. Traditionally, patients receive verbal and written information by the surgeon on the preoperative preparations, hospital admission, surgical procedure, postoperative care and expectations after surgery. Walker [21] reviewed the literature on the effects of information on general patient satisfaction. Despite the fact that this study concluded that there is contradicting evidence, good-quality preoperative information seems to facilitate patients to get actively involved in their care. In the information process, patient expectation management holds an indispensable role and good preoperative information can prevent unfulfilled expectations [18]. Patient information is ideally provided as written content, since the retention of verbal information by patients is low [8,13]. To increase reproducibility, patient information should be repeatedly available for patients. The purpose of the present study was to explore the experiences and opinions of patients undergoing KA surgery on a preoperatively provided information brochure. Methods This study included patients undergoing primary elective unicompartmental or total KA. A qualitative and exploratory case study, with use of individual semi-structured face-to-face interviews, was conducted. Preoperative patient information After consultation of the orthopaedic surgeon, patients undergoing KA surgery received a brochure on the day that the patient was added to the waiting list. The orthopaedic operation room (OR) planner handed out the brochure and explained its use. On average, patients received the brochure 6-8 weeks prior to surgery. The brochure (A4 format) contains information on the patient pathway, divided in several sections (table 1). It was developed in collaboration with all stakeholders forming the multidisciplinary team (consisting of nurses, physiotherapists, physician assistants, anaesthesiologists, hospital pharmacist orthopaedic surgeons, managers, planners and communications department). Content of the brochure was based on the information supplied by the Dutch Orthopaedic Society [15] and adjusted to incorporate in our clinical pathway. Continues improvementsweremade after several patients gave solicited andunsolicited advice on the content of the brochure.