Page 162 - The value of total hip and knee arthroplasties for patients

Chapter 8
as such events may have a large impact on the time until patients are able to return to their previous job.
In addition, the study concerned only patients undergoing surgery in one hospital in the Netherlands, whereas a multicenter study would have been preferable. Given the baseline characteristics of the patients including their radiographic characteristics as well as the magnitude of their clinical improvements over time, they appear, however, to be a fairly representative group of all patients with OA undergoing THA or TKA.
The strengths of our study are that we included patients with TKA, where research on work status in this patient group is scanty. Moreover, we gathered information on the number of working hours, showing a loss of work productivity despite high return to work rates.
In conclusion, this study shows that the large majority of working patients undergoing THA or TKA returns to work, after approximately 12 weeks. The present study suggests that apart from the small group of patients not returning to work,there may also be a group of patients who do return to work, yet not completely.Therefore, on the societal level, the total loss of productivity could be substantial given the large absolute numbers of patients undergoing total joint arthroplasties and warrants further analysis and intervention.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the Anna Fonds/ Nederlands Orthopedisch Research en Educatie Fonds [Grant Number 02012/09] and Dutch Arthritis Association [Grant Number LLP13].
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