Abstract
Objective: In the Critical Path (CP) of total hip arthroplasty (THA) at our hospital, hospital stay is aimed to be less than 5 weeks. However, hospital stay often exceeds 5 weeks. Therefore, to test the validity of the CP and to identify reasons for the variations, we investigated the hospital stay and post-operative walking ability.
Method: The subjects were 32 joints of 31 patients to whom the CP was applicable. Hospital stay after THA, days until walking was acquired, and obstruction factors that extended hospital stay were collected from the clinical records.
Results: In 11 of 32 cases, hospital stay after THA was between 5 and 6 weeks. These patients took longer to become able to walk with a cane (a condition for discharge) . Obstruction factors that extended hospital stay to more than 6 weeks included weakness in weight-bearing strength on the non-operated hip joint.
Conclusion: While the CP of THA in our hospital aims for a hospital stay of less than 5 weeks, the hospital stay was between 5 and 6 weeks in most cases. The variance was due to delays in dischrge after acquisition of independent walking with a cane. One of the obstruction factors that caused more than 6 week-stays was weakness in weighh-bearing strength on the non-operated side.
