No increase in postoperative contacts with the healthcare system following outpatient total hip and knee arthroplasty

Feasibility, safety, and patient-reported outcomes 90 days after same-day total knee arthroplasty: a matched cohort study

“…A recent Danish study found readmission (90-day follow-up), discharging department visits (3-week follow-up), and telephone calls to other departments and general practitioner (3-week follow-up) to be similar between TKA groups (± discharged on DOS) (12). In contrast to our study, the study found telephone calls to the discharging department to be statistically significant higher in patients discharged on DOS (12).…”

“…Results -89 of 101 SD-TKA patients were discharged on DOS. The number of telephone calls (≤ 83) and outpatient visits (12) were similar in the 2 groups. The number of readmissions was ≤ 3 in both groups, and only 1 of the readmissions was related to TKA surgery.…”

“…The reviews on TKA include both comparative (non-randomized) and non-comparative studies; the definition of discharge on the day of surgery (DOS) varies, and clinical pathway protocols differ (1)(2)(3)(4)8). Most studies were conducted in the United States, and only a few in Europe (9)(10)(11)(12)(13). Given the low number of patients undergoing SD-TKA in previous European studies, further studies on SD-TKA are warranted, particularly in Scandinavian populations.…”

Reduction in hospital length of stay and increased utilization of telemedicine during the “return-to-normal” period of the COVID-19 pandemic does not adversely influence early clinical outcomes in patients undergoing total hip replacement: a case-control study

“…This finding has also been corroborated in several studies that reported a low number of ER visits, and complication, readmission, and reoperation rates when ambulatory and fast-track protocols are employed after THR and TKR ( 23 - 25 ). A recent study by Husted et al highlighted similar findings in that patients undergoing fast-track (DOS) discharge had similar postoperative contacts with the healthcare system when compared with patients not discharged on the DOS ( 26 ). Our findings further mitigate concerns regarding the safety of fasttrack THR.…”

“…Fourth, while a decrease in hospital readmission rate from 4.0% to 2.8% in the study cohort may not be statistically significant, it is possible that the study is not powered enough to detect a difference of this magnitude. Fifth, while we noted that there were similar postoperative in-person office contacts between the cohorts, we were unable to study the effect of the increased telehealth utilization on primary care provider (PCP) visits, as highlighted in the Husted et al study ( 26 ). This is the result of our institution being a tertiary orthopedic hospital with an EMR that does not capture PCP visits, and it is unlikely that there would be a correlation here as it is our standard practice for surgical patients to follow up with their index surgeons, with PCP visits discouraged.…”