• Users Online: 34
  • Print this page
  • Email this page
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Year : 2022  |  Volume : 12  |  Issue : 2  |  Page : 23-27

Day case anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery – A study of early treatment outcomes in a regional orthopaedic centre


1 Division of Arthroscopy and Sports Medicine, Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma, National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi-Lagos, Nigeria
2 Department of Anaesthesia, National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi-Lagos, Nigeria
3 Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma, National Hospital Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria

Correspondence Address:
Dr. Christian C Madubueze
Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma, National Hospital Abuja
Nigeria
Login to access the Email id

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None


DOI: 10.4103/jwas.jwas_125_22

Rights and Permissions

Background: Day-case anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction has the potential benefit of reduced hospital stay and reduced cost of care. The goal of this preliminary report was to compare the outcome of day-case arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with those of in-patient care in terms of pain control and short-term functional outcome. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective comparative study involving patients who had anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction performed in our unit between January 2019 to July 2021 for isolated anterior cruciate ligament rupture. The patients were offered the option of in-patient and day-case anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. All cases were isolated anterior cruciate ligament ruptures with no other ligament injury. Results: A total of twenty-one-day case and twenty-five in-patient anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction were managed during the period of the study. The median numeric pain scores at day 2 and 7 in the day case group was 8.0 (IQR=2.0) and 5.0 (IQR= 3.0) respectively and in-patient group was 7.0 (IQR =1.5) and 4.0 (IQR= 2.0) respectively. The international knee documentation score (IKDC) at 6 months in the day case and in-patient groups were 68.6 (IQR= 9.3) and 67.2 (IQR= 25.0) respectively. The Mann-Whitney U test indicated that patients who had ACL reconstruction on in-patient care basis had statistically significant lower visual analogue scale pain scores on the second (z=-2.58, P = 0.01) and seventh (z=-3.41 P = 0.001) post-operative days compared to patients who had ACL reconstruction on day case basis. There was no statistically significant difference in the median IKDC scores of both groups at 6 months. The cost of care in the day case group was 40% lower than those of the in-patient group. Conclusion: Although the cost of care in the day case group appeared lower as compared to the in-patient group, the day case group had higher post-operative pain scores compared to the in-patient group. Although the post-operative functional scores were similar in both groups, this was not statistically significant


[FULL TEXT] [PDF]*
Print this article     Email this article
 Next article
 Previous article
 Table of Contents

 Similar in PUBMED
   Search Pubmed for
   Search in Google Scholar for
 Related articles
 Citation Manager
 Access Statistics
 Reader Comments
 Email Alert *
 Add to My List *
 * Requires registration (Free)
 

 Article Access Statistics
    Viewed607    
    Printed84    
    Emailed0    
    PDF Downloaded118    
    Comments [Add]    

Recommend this journal