Abstract
Introduction:
The awareness of MoM hips in the general public, one would expect, to be good, given the media coverage. This study aims to look at the perceptions and knowledge of patients who have already got a MoM arthroplasty.
Methods:
All the patients who have had a MoM hip arthroplasty from Nov 2003 to the end of 2007 were identified from the database. Postal questionnaires were sent to all the patients, the responses received and analyzed. Those patients who had symptoms and those who fulfilled MHRA criteria were invited to a clinic for further surveillance.
Results:
In total there were 294 patients identified with 323 hips. Only 223 patients (75.8%) responded the questionnaire. Therefore, only this group was included for the analysis. From these 223 patients, 33 patients (14.8%) contacted the hospital, prior to the questionnaire being sent, to know the kind of hip prosthesis they've got implanted, following the media coverage.
Out of 223 patients in the group, only 9 (4%) knew what type of hip they've had implanted, although 92 (42%) of them knew the name of the prosthesis. Following the questionnaire, only 32% expressed interest voluntarily if they could be followed up in the clinic to know further about the prostheses and the possible implications. They have done this by calling up the secretary.
The department has decided to keep these patients under close surveillance by running special MoM clinics. From this cohort, 47 (21.1%) patients did not want to come to such a clinic since their hips were functioning well.
Conclusions:
From this study, it is quite clear that majority of patients did not know what type of prostheses they have had implanted. As small a group as 1/7th of the patients wanted to find out about their hips, following awareness in the media. It was interesting to note that 1/5th of the patients did not want further investigations since they have got well functioning hips.
