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Effect of patient information on length of stay following total hip replacement
ISRCTN ISRCTN16674928
ClinicalTrials.gov identifier
Public title Effect of patient information on length of stay following total hip replacement
Scientific title
Acronym N/A
Serial number at source N0077155742
Study hypothesis Does giving patients additional pre-operative information with regards to expected length and course of inpatient stay following total hip replacement shorten their actual length of stay?
Lay summary Not provided at time of registration
Ethics approval Not provided at time of registration
Study design Randomised controlled trial
Countries of recruitment United Kingdom
Disease/condition/study domain Surgery: Hip replacement
Participants - inclusion criteria All patients on the waiting list for a total hip replacement (under care of participating consultants) undergo pre-operative assessment 2-3 weeks prior to surgery. This is in order to check they are medically fit for surgery and also to make sure they understand the procedure and what to expect from the surgery.
The patients will be randomised into 2 groups and colour coded on the list of patients attending that day in pre-op assessment. The nurses and doctors in the pre-operative assessment unit will them know who is in which group. There will be no documentation on the patient notes stating which group they are in.
During the consultation with the doctor, half of the patients will be managed as per current practice. the other group will be verbally told additional information about their expected inpatient stay.
The patients will not be able to be informed of the study as this will obviously invalidate the results by heightening their awareness of the issue of inpatient stay (that is they may go and do further research themselves, including speaking to the other patients about what they have been told).
Participants - exclusion criteria Any patients undergoing revision total hip replacement.
Anticipated start date 03/02/2005
Anticipated end date 01/01/2007
Status of trial Stopped
Patient information material
Target number of participants 500
Interventions Patients attending pre-operative assessment for their total hip replacement will be randomised into 2 groups. They will all be given the information booklet they have always been given which includes the statement that they will be in hospital 5-10 days. All patients will be managed identically to current practice. The pre-operative assessment clinic involves the patients meeting with a nurse, surgeon and anaesthetist to establish fitness for anaesthetic and operation. The patient also undergoes a fully informed consenting procedure to ensure they understand what the operation entails and risks of complications.

One subset of patients will be given some additional verbal information with regards to the details of their expected course. this will explain which days are targets for achieving sitting out of bed, mobilising with a zimmer and ultimately discharge date. The remaining patients will be managed as per current practice.

Management of the patients will then be identical and also no different from current management. They will undergo surgery and the same nursing and physiotherapy care on the ward. There will be no pressure for earlier discharge as the ward staff and physiotherapists will not be aware of which group is which.

Once the patients are discharged I will review their notesto document details such as age, sex, concurrent medical problems, type of prosthesis, day of surgery (if a patient is operated on Friday their discharge may be delayed as there is reduced physiotherapy over the weekend) and post-operative complications. It will be of course noted the actual length of stay. As a precaution the notes will also be reviewed 4 weeks following discharge to ensure the patients did not require readmission.

I will then compare the 2 groups against one another and statistically analyse to see if there is a significant difference in length of stay between them. A qualitative picture of whether length of stay has been shortened by increasing patients information about inpatient stay will be obtained by comparison of the groups.

Please note, this trial was superseded by the introduction of independent treatment centres with length of stay changing over night to a 5 day programme making this study null and void.
Primary outcome measure(s) Length of inpatient stay following primary total hip replacement.
Secondary outcome measure(s) Not provided at time of registration
Sources of funding Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UK), NHS R&D Support Funding
Trial website
Publications
Contact name Mr  J  Rowles
  Address Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Department of Trauma & Orthopaedics
Derbyshire Royal Infirmary
London Road
  City/town Derby
  Zip/Postcode DE1 2QY
  Country United Kingdom
Sponsor Record Provided by the NHSTCT Register - 2005 Update - Department of Health (UK)
  Address The Department of Health
Richmond House
79 Whitehall
  City/town London
  Zip/Postcode SW1A 2NL
  Country United Kingdom
  Tel +44 (0)20 7307 2622
  Fax +44 (0)20 7307 2623
  Email dhmail@doh.gsi.org.uk
  Sponsor website: http://www.dh.gov.uk/Home/fs/en
Date applied 30/09/2005
Last edited 29/11/2011
Date ISRCTN assigned 30/09/2005
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