A Trial to Establish Realistic Patient Expectations of Total Knee Replacement

Patients from the Joint Replacement Institute scheduled to undergo primary total knee replacement surgery (TKR) will be invited to participate at the Pre Admission Clinic (PAC), University Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre. Baseline questionnaires of preoperative measures and demographic information and a cost analysis will be explored at the PAC for each patient. Patients will be randomized with the treatment group receiving access to a web-based, e-learning intervention. Postoperatively all patients will be asked to complete questionnaires at 6 weeks, 3 months and 1 year after their TKR surgery.

Objectives

The first primary objective is to compare the effect of two methods of providing patient education on expectations of surgical outcome in total knee replacement (TKR) patients.

The second objective is to compare the effect of two methods of providing patient education on satisfaction with surgical outcome in TKR patients.

The intervention of interest is an e-learning education program that spans both the preoperative and postoperative time period. The control condition will be the current method of patient education provided at the hospital study site.

Hypothesis: Objective One

More change in patient expectations will occur between preoperative and one year postoperative in the e-learning educational intervention group.

Hypothesis: Objective Two

More change in patient satisfaction will occur between preoperative and one year postoperative in the e-learning educational intervention group.

This will be a single centre prospective experimental study, involving seven orthopaedic surgeons and their patients undergoing total knee replacement (TKR). A consecutive sample of elective primary TKR patients will be invited to participate from London Health Sciences Centre, University Hospital, London, Ontario, Canada. Additionally, patient hospital charts will be accessed to establish the concordance between co-morbidities recorded in patient history and self-report measures of co-morbidities.

Interested patients will be randomized into one of two groups. Group 1 (intervention) will receive the e-learning educational intervention in addition to the current method of patient education. It will commence at the pre-admission clinic and continue to the study end-point of 1-year postoperative. Group 2 (control) will receive the current, existing method utilized by each of the seven orthopaedic surgeons for their patient education. At pre-admission, patients are provided a 31 page hard copy of My Guide to Total Knee Joint Replacement (Revised January, 2008) and they are made aware of an electronic copy of this document available at the following website: http://www.jointreplacementinstitute.com/patients.html

The assumption is that patients can and will read this document to educate themselves about their TKR surgery. The interactive e-learning patient education intervention extends beyond simple accessibility to information and includes interactive features. The intervention spans surgery and rehabilitation aftercare with patients undergoing TKR. Measurements will take place at pre-admission before any preoperative education takes place and at 6 weeks, 3 months and 1 year after TKR surgery. Patients will have the option of completing questionnaires online using Empower or hard copy sent by mail. They will also receive reminders by email or phone about completing the questionnaires.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* 20-90 years of age
* diagnosis of primary or secondary osteoarthritis of the knee
* scheduled for primary total knee replacement by Joint Replacement Institute orthopaedic surgeons at University Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre
* access to a computer (to log on to the web-based e-learning intervention)

Exclusion Criteria:

* unable to read written English or understand spoken English
* unable to provide informed consent
* diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis
* scheduled for knee revision, patellar resurfacing, hemiarthroplasty of the knee, unicompartmental (unicondylar) knee arthroplasty or high tibial osteotomy, or knee surgery due to a tumor or trauma
* unable to access a computer (to log on to the web-based e-learning intervention)