Comparative analysis of level of functional dependence of elderly submitted to hip arthroplasty

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Hip Arthroplasty (HA) is a surgical procedure performed in cases of femoral neck fracture (FF) and hip osteoarthrosis (HO), and is responsible for causing functional damage by increasing the level of functional dependence of the elderly individual. OBJECTIVE: analyze the level of functional dependence among elderly patients who underwent AQ. METHODS: elderly subjects hospitalized at the trauma-orthopedic ward of the University Hospital of the Federal University of Maranhão (HU-UFMA) were evaluated for their level of functional dependence through the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and the level of pain through Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), both in the pre and postoperative periods. The volunteers were divided into group A, with diagnosis of hip osteoarthrosis, and group B, with diagnosis of femoral neck fracture. The unpaired t test was used to compare the results in the pre and postoperative period, adopting a significance level of p <0.05. RESULTS: A total of 46 elderly individuals comprised the sample, 17 (37%) males and 29 (63%) females, group A presented a lower level of functional dependence in the preoperative period compared to the subjects in group B, however, the evaluation of pain revealed larger indices for group A in the preoperative period. The comparative analysis of the VAS results in the pre and postoperative periods was statistically significant for both groups. The FIM results for group A were not statistically significant for group B, but the self-care domains, mobility, locomotion and total domains presented statistically significant values. CONCLUSION: Group A had higher mean values in the preoperative VAS and lower level of functional dependence for the FIM compared to group B, which had the highest mean age and greater presence of comorbidities.