The COMI study aims to assess the appropriateness of hip and knee replacement surgery in the Kanton Basel-Stadt. Inappropriate would be to perform these surgical procedures in patients whose functional status of the hip or knee joints is still too good and their pain level still too low to warrant a surgical intervention. As their pain relief is smaller compared with that of ‘typical’ recipients of an arthroplasty, they may be less satisfied with the surgical result.
The comparison of pre to post-operative pain and function as well as quality of life in different patient subgroups (e.g. age groups) allows us to measure the quality and appropriateness of the current use of hip and knee replacement surgery.
The appropriateness of the indication for surgery is assessed in an observational longitudinal study at the two orthopaedic hospitals of the Kanton Basel-Stadt. For this purpose, patients are asked to complete the validated disease-specific COMI questionnaire before surgery as well as 6 and 24 months after surgery.
Further readings:
http://www.saez.ch/aktuelle-ausgabe/details/auf-der-letzten-meile-zum-patienten-3.html
