Speaker: Nicholas Michael Brown, MD, FAAOS, Associate Professor, Loyola University Medical Center
Nicholas Michael Brown, MD, FAAOS: Hi, I'm Doctor Nicholas Brown from Loyola University.
Study Introduction & Objectives
Nicholas Michael Brown, MD, FAAOS: The purpose of our study was to try and understand the impact of hip and knee replacement on spousal involvement in the house and ability to help out around the house and overall spousal quality of life,
Nicholas Michael Brown, MD, FAAOS: If your spouse gets a hip or knee replacement does that then improve the quality of life of the spouse who did not get the joint replacement?
Key Takeaways & Discussion Points
Nicholas Michael Brown, MD, FAAOS: In the vast majority of patients, their quality of life was better after their spouse got either a hip or knee replacement. The hips did slightly better than the knees and we did find a little bit of a dip, of course, as you'd expect in quality of life right after surgery, There's more responsibilities typically taking care of your spouse or doing things around the house and things like that in the immediate post-op period.
Nicholas Michael Brown, MD, FAAOS: Most of the spouses had an improvement in their quality of life as a result of their spouse getting a joint replacement.
Impact on Patient Care
Nicholas Michael Brown, MD, FAAOS: The effects of hip and knee replacement go beyond the patient itself and will have positive effects on their spouse and their family. I think a lot of times what I would see would be the spouse would be the person dragging the patient in because they're sick of hearing him complain about it or they couldn't do the things they want to do or they couldn't walk with them or they couldn't go on vacation with them.
Nicholas Michael Brown, MD, FAAOS: We sort of had a sense that, when someone gets a hip or knee replacement this improves the spousal quality of life, but now we have data to back that up. up.
