Relationship between clinical results of total hip replacement and postoperative activities including weeding and...

Weeding or snow shovelling is indispensable for life in farm villages of northern countries. Clarifying the relationships between the degrees of these activities after total hip replacement (THR) and the clinical results of THR may enable us to predict the results of THR for high-level activity patients. The relationships between work activities after THR and the results were investigated.

The subjects were 95 post-THR patients, who consulted 6 hospitals in August 2012. First, the Japanese Orthopaedic Association Hip-Disease Evaluation Questionnaire (JHEQ) and a questionnaire on postoperative activity were administered. Then, the Japanese Orthopaedic Association hip score (JOA score) was evaluated.

The subjects' average age was 68 years. The average period after surgery was 4 years and 5 months. Weeding and snow shovelling were performed after THR in 44.2% and 40.0% of cases, respectively. The rate of farming after surgery (25.6%) was greater than that of swimming (21.1%). Both the JOA score and JHEQ were higher in those who played sports after THR than in those who did not (p = 0.003, p = 0.0046). The JOA score of those who performed work activities after THR was higher than that of those who did not (p = 0.0295).

Nearly half of patients performed weeding or snow shovelling after THR, and about 1/4 of the patients engaged in farming after THR. The clinical results in cases doing sports and work activities after THR were better than those of cases not doing such activities. Therefore, these activities may be positively recommended.