UK study shows that the number of patients in a “state worse than death” on the waiting list for hip or knee replacements has nearly doubled during the COVID 19 pandemic.
The suffering of orthopaedic patients has been highlighted by a recent study in the Bone and Joint Journal. The authors showed that 35% of patients waiting for hip replacement and nearly 22% waiting for knee replacement are in a health state “worse than death” due to their arthritis. This is double the number previously displaying these symptoms prior to the pandemic.
The authors from 10 orthopaedic centres in the UK contacted 843 patients who all verbally answered a questionnaire called the EQ-5D (an established medical questionnaire that looks at mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression). With severe arthritis, it is possible to score less than zero on this questionnaire – giving you a health state “worse than death”.
In addition over 80% of those questioned felt that their quality of life had got worse while waiting with each additional month causing further decreases in quality of life.
What is particularly concerning is this study was carried out between August and September 2020 leading us to wonder what those numbers will look like after another 6 months of disruption to surgical services due to the COVID-19 pandemic? There is strong evidence that the longer people wait for surgery the more medical complications they develop, the higher the risk of complications, the harder the surgery and the lower the patient satisfaction.
This multi centre UK collaboration from a fantastic group of surgeons has shown the burden and the magnitude of the current crisis – for full details of this research click here:
https://doi.org/10.1302/0301-620X.103B.BJJ-2021-0104.R1
