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Our group has specialised in using Local Infiltration Analgesia to reduce pain and improve mobility after joint replacement surgery.  Having adopted the technique in 2003, it has a number of modifications and improvements.  Auditing DJM’s data for 2015 the average number of nights in hospital was 1.84, but the most common day to go home was the day after surgery.

It is possible to reasonably predict how long the patients need to be in hospital by looking at age, walking distance,  aids (eg walking stick), and whether the patient will be going home to an empty house.  The graph is all patients excluding the time that 10 patients (6%) spent in rehabilitation.  We predicted 9 of those to need rehabilitation prior to surgery.  Assuming reasonably good health and independence, one or two nights in hospital is usually sufficient.

One patient stayed 12 days, which was expected. Because of these figures, it is reasonable for some patients to consider paying for surgery even though they don’t have insurance.

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