Contributing Factors to Surgical Decision-Making in Patients with Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is a joint disease that can lead to severe pain for the millions of people that it affects. Osteoarthritis is the wear and tear of cartilage in the joints that happens due to everyday life. Persons with osteoarthritis decide from many treatment options such as medications, therapy, injections, or joint replacement surgery. Depending on many factors, joint replacement surgery may or may not be the preferred treatment option. Using clinical surveys, this study aggregates determining factors for patients with knee and hip osteoarthritis with respect to surgical decision-making. With the use of a biopsychosocial model-based approach to surgical disposition, determinants will be investigated. Findings from this study will provide significant indicators for physicians, and could possibly serve as decision aids during conversations about surgical treatment. Suggestions of future directions for this study will be provided, proposing ways in which components of this model could be analyzed. This work ultimately aims to bring new clarity to understanding the factors that go into optimizing health outcomes for persons with osteoarthritis. A well established decision aid may be beneficial in aiding patients to determine their most viable option and help mitigate the extreme costs of suboptimal disease progression and management.