QUALITY-OF-LIFE BEFORE AND AFTER TOTAL HIP-ARTHROPLASTY

Purpose of the study: Quality of Life of patients with Total Hip Arthr oplasty is analysed before and one year after surgery. The evaluation included the functional capacity of our patients in every day life com paring the preoperative situation with the result one year after surge ry. Age and duration of symptoms were analysed with respect to their i nfluence on the success of the procedure. Finally the question should be answered, if clinical examinations and questionnaires concerning Qu ality of Life result in comparable data. Method: 101 patients with an average age of 64.2 years were included into this study. All patients were evaluated preoperatively and one year after surgery using the Har ris Hip Score, questionnaires for Qualitiy of Life of the patients inc luded the Nottingham Health Profile and the Functional Questionnaire H annover. Results: The pre- and postoperative means of the Nottingham H ealth Profile showed in five of the six dimensions a significant impro vement of Quality of Life (pain, mobility, energy, emotional reaction, sleep). Only the scale ''social isolation'' remained unchanged betwee n the pre- and postoperative situation. The means of the functional ca pacity according to the Hannover questionnaire improved from 57.92 to 39.79, a highly significant result. The Harris Hip Score was poor in 9 7% of the preoperative evaluations. This score improved to 80.2% excel lent or good, 7.9% fair and 11.9% poor at one year after surgery. Age and duration of symptoms had no influence in any parameter of Quality of Life. A classification of parameters on Quality of Life according t o the Harris-Hip-Score at the 1-year results demonstrates a clear grad ing concerning the excellent and poor results. Based on the patients e valuations a differentiation between good and poor results is not reco rded. Conclusions: The objective evaluation of results after implantat ion of a total hip joint-endoprosthesis should not be based only on cl inical scores (f.e. Harris-Hip-Score). Subjective informations by the patients using questionnaires on Quality of Life (f.e. NHP, FFbH-R) ha ve to be included into these evaluations. The different judgements of the outcome of surgery underline the necessity, not only to use clinic al scores but also to include the patients' feeling into the interpret ation of the clinical result.