Day case unicompartmental knee replacement: An update of the Torbay experience

Hospitals throughout the United Kingdom face significant challenges in regards to inpatient bed capacity, leading to growing interest in day case arthroplasty. Day case Unicompartmental Knee Replacement (UKR) has been offered within our unit since 2010, with successive evaluations of pathway outcomes performed in 2011 and 2015. Since then, our day case UKR pathway has expanded. This study aims to evaluate the safety, efficiency and patient satisfaction with this expanded pathway.

Data was prospectively collected for all patients undergoing a UKR between January 2017 and August 2019. Data collected included the pathway planned, date of admission, date of discharge and re-admissions to hospital within 30 days of surgery. Patient satisfaction was evaluated via a follow-up questionnaire.

109 patients underwent a UKR between January 2017 and August 2019. 83 patients (76%) were planned through the day case pathway. 63 patients were successfully discharged on the day of surgery. One day case pathway and two inpatient pathway patients were re-admitted within 30 days of surgery with medical conditions. A high level of patient satisfaction with our day case pathway was identified.

UKR with planned discharge on the day of surgery is possible for a large proportion of patients provided that robust pathway and protocol design is undertaken. Following 10 years' experience, our day case UKR pathway has increasingly become the default for the majority of our patients. We report high patient satisfaction and low 30-day re-admission rates. However, 100% success rate for day of surgery discharge remains challenging.