Preoperative education in patients undergoing foot and ankle surgery: A scoping review protocol

Objective: We aim to identify and to describe all the available evidence addressing preoperative education on patients undergoing any foot and ankle surgery.Design: This is the protocol for a scoping review of the literature.Data sources: We will perform electronic searches on Pubmed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, LILACS, ERIC, Scopus, The Cochrane library, clinicaltrials.gov and the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. We will broad this search by conducting a cross-citation search in Google Scholar of all included studies and by checking their references. Eligibility criteria and methods: We will include any study addressing preoperative education on patients undergoing a foot and ankle surgery, without regard to their design or language. Two independent authors will select the studies and extract the data. We will extract data concerning the characteristics of each study, their participants, and data about the preoperative education they evaluated.Ethics: No ethics committee approval is required.

The Effect of Preoperative Behavioral Intervention on Pain, Anxiety, Opioid Use, and Function in Patients Undergoing Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Randomized Controlled Study

ABSTRACT Objective To evaluate the efficacy of preoperative cognitive-behavioral psychoeducation (CBE) for improved pain, anxiety, opioid use, and postoperative function in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) patients. Methods A randomized controlled trial was conducted among 36 military health system beneficiaries attending preoperative education for TKA. The standard of care (SOC) group (n = 18) received information on home safety, rehabilitation, postoperative precautions, and pain management. In addition, the occupational therapy led CBE group (n = 16) received information on principles of holistic wellness (healing process, effects of stress on healing, heart-rate control through diaphragmatic breathing, anti-inflammatory nutrition, goal setting, and mental imagery). Outcomes of interest: knee active range of motion, pain (Defense and Veterans Pain Rating Scale), opioid medication use, heart-rate coherence (emwave2), anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale), and function (Knee Outcome Survey Activities of Daily Living [KOS-ADL], modified Functional Independence Measure, and Global Rate of Change). Results The CBE group demonstrated significantly greater decline in pain overall, with activity, and during sleep in relation to the SOC group when comparing visit 1 to visit 5. Opioid medication use was significantly lower for CBE versus SOC. Postoperative General Anxiety Disorder-7 scores decreased significantly among CBE participants with similar increase in high heart rate coherence. Function significantly improved postoperatively based on KOS-ADL and Global Rate of Change scores. Twice as many CBE participants had same-day discharge compared to SOC participants and most CBE participants continued with healthy lifestyle recommendations at the 3-month follow-up. Conclusion A cognitive-behavioral approach to preoperative education may improve postoperative pain, anxiety, and function while decreasing opioid use among TKA patients. Findings from this pilot study support further research to examine similar interventions among distinct surgical populations and encourage further evaluation on the effects of CBE to enhance health and healthcare delivery.

Effects of preoperative physiotherapy on signs and symptoms of pulmonary collapse and infection after major abdominal surgery: secondary analysis of the LIPPSMAck-POP multicentre randomised controlled trial

Background Preoperative education and breathing exercise training by a physiotherapist minimises pulmonary complications after abdominal surgery. Effects on specific clinical outcomes such as antibiotic prescriptions, chest imaging, sputum cultures, oxygen requirements, and diagnostic coding are unknown. Methods This post hoc analysis of prospectively collected data within a double-blinded, multicentre, randomised controlled trial involving 432 participants having major abdominal surgery explored effects of preoperative education and breathing exercise training with a physiotherapist on postoperative antibiotic prescriptions, hypoxemia, sputum cultures, chest imaging, auscultation, leukocytosis, pyrexia, oxygen therapy, and diagnostic coding, compared to a control group who received a booklet alone. All participants received standardised postoperative early ambulation. Outcomes were assessed daily for 14 postoperative days. Analyses were intention-to-treat using adjusted generalised multivariate linear regression. Results Preoperative physiotherapy was associated with fewer antibiotic prescriptions specific for a respiratory infection (RR 0.52; 95% CI 0.31 to 0.85, p = 0.01), less purulent sputum on the third and fourth postoperative days (RR 0.50; 95% CI 0.34 to 0.73, p = 0.01), fewer positive sputum cultures from the third to fifth postoperative day (RR 0.17; 95% CI 0.04 to 0.77, p = 0.01), and less oxygen therapy requirements (RR 0.49; 95% CI 0.31 to 0.78, p = 0.002). Treatment effects were specific to respiratory clinical coding domains. Conclusions Preoperative physiotherapy prevents postoperative pulmonary complications and is associated with the minimisation of signs and symptoms of pulmonary collapse/consolidation and airway infection and specifically results in reduced oxygen therapy requirements and antibiotic prescriptions. Trial registration ANZCTR 12613000664741; 19/06/2013.

Implementing a telehealth prehabilitation education session for patients preparing for major cancer surgery

Background Prehabilitation services assist patients in preparing for surgery, yet access to these services are often limited by geographical factors. Enabling rural and regional patients to access specialist surgical prehabilitation support with the use of telehealth technology has the potential to overcome health inequities and improve post-operative outcomes. Aim To evaluate the current and likely future impact of a telehealth preoperative education package for patients preparing for major abdominal cancer surgery. Methods A telehealth alternative to a hospital based pre-operative education session was developed and implemented at a dedicated cancer hospital. Adult patients (≥18 years) scheduled for elective major cancer surgery were offered this telehealth alternative. Impact evaluation was conducted using the RE-AIM framework. Results To date, 35 participants have consented to participate in the study. Thirty-one participants attended the intervention; 24 (69%) residing in rural or regional areas. Twenty-four (77%) reported that if given a choice they would prefer the online session as opposed to attending the hospital in person. The majority (97%) reported they would recommend the intervention to others preparing for surgery. Session information was recalled by all 26 participants and 77% of participants reported acting on recommendations 2 weeks after the session. Lessons learnt and recommendations for providers implementing similar programs are reported. Conclusion Telehealth alternatives to hospital based pre-operative education are well received by patients preparing for major cancer surgery. We make seven recommendations to improve implementation. Further evaluation of implementation strategies alongside clinical effectiveness in future studies is essential. Trial registration ACTRN12620000096954, 04/02/2020.

The influence of expectation modification in knee arthroplasty on satisfaction of patients: a randomized controlled trial

Aims Meeting preoperative expectations is known to be of major influence on postoperative satisfaction after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Improved management of expectation, resulting in more realistic expectations can potentially lead to higher postoperative satisfaction. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of an additional preoperative education module, addressing realistic expectations for long-term functional recovery, on postoperative satisfaction and expectation fulfilment. Methods In total, 204 primary TKA patients with osteoarthritis were enrolled in this randomized controlled trial (RCT). Patients were allocated to either usual preoperative education (control group) or usual education plus an additional module on realistic expectations (intervention group). Primary outcome was being very satisfied (numerical rating scale for satisfaction ≥ 8) with the treatment result at 12 months' follow-up. Other outcomes were change in preoperative expectations and postoperative expectation fulfilment. Results A total of 187 patients (91.7%) were available for analysis at follow-up. In the intention-to-treat analysis, 58.5% (55/94) of patients were very satisfied with the treatment result in the control group, and 69.9% (65/93) of patients in the intervention group (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.72, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.90 to 3.29). A per-protocol analysis for patients who attended the education session (92.0%, n = 172) showed that 56.9% (49/86) of patients were very satisfied in the control group and 74.4% (61/86) in the intervention group (AOR 2.44, 95% CI 1.21 to 4.91). After preoperative education, the expectation scores in the intervention group were significantly lower (mean difference -6.9 (95% CI -10.2 to -3.6)) and did not alter in the control group (mean difference 0.5 (95% CI -2.9 to 3.9)). Overall, fulfilment of expectations at 12 months was significantly higher in the intervention group (mean difference 11.4% (95% CI 2.3 to 20.5)). Conclusion Improved preoperative patient education can modify patient expectations, resulting in higher postoperative fulfilment of expectation and higher satisfaction in the group that attended the preoperative education. This is the first RCT to confirm the potential of improved expectation management on satisfaction after TKA. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2021;103-B(4):619–626.

P23: ENHANCED RECOVERY PROGRAMME – DOES PREOPERATIVE EDUCATION REDUCE LENGTH OF HOSPITAL STAY (LOS) IN PRIMARY HIP & KNEE ARTHROPLASTY

Introduction Total knee and hip arthroplasty significantly improve quality of life in people suffering from end-stage hip & knee arthritides. Enhanced recovery programs have shown improved outcomes following elective arthroplasty by decreasing patients anxiety, postoperative pain and reducing the length of hospital stay (LOS). The aim of our study is to evaluate the impact of preoperative education programs on length of hospital stay in patients undergoing hip & knee arthroplasty. Method Retrospective data was collected from a consecutive series of 520 patients' charts and Irish National Orthopedic Register (INOR) who underwent Hip or Knee arthroplasty from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2018, in Our Lady Hospital, Navan. The length of stay study compared two hundred and twenty-six patients in the Educational Group (EG) who attended the Hip & Knee School (Preoperative Education Class) with 294 patients in the Conventional Group (CG) who did not attend the hip and knee educational programme. Result We identified that Length of Hospital Stay decreased to 5.2 days in Educational Group from 5.5 days in Conventional Group (P-value equals to 0.26, statistically insignificant, t = 1.1093 df = 518), with a mean difference of only 0.3 days (95% confidence interval). Conclusion Preoperative education does not reduce the length of hospital stay in primary hip & knee arthroplasty. Take-home message Preoperative education has no role in reducing hospital stay in Arthroplasty patients.