Patient compliance with hip precautions 12 weeks following primary elective total hip arthroplasty

Patients are routinely advised to follow hip precautions following their total hip arthroplasty (THA) surgery. There is lack of evidence regarding compliance with these precautions and when patients return to activities of daily living following their surgery. We designed a new questionnaire to discover when patients return to their activities of daily living. Two hundred and ninety seven consecutive patients who attended 12 week follow up arthroplasty clinic following their primary elective THA were asked to complete the questionnaire. All patients who attended the follow up clinic at 12 weeks responded to the questionnaire. Only 6.3% (n = 19) of the patients reported that they restricted their daily activities, as prescribed for the full 12 week period, while 50% (n = 148) of patients stopped using prescribed adaptive equipment by 6 weeks after their operation. There were no dislocations recorded among the study group. We found that the majority of patients do not adhere to hip precautions advice. They return to their activities of daily living prior to the end of prescription period based on their pain and activity level. Lack of adherence to hip precautions do not predispose to hip dislocation in the immediate post-operative period.