• Islam Nassar, Julie Fahey, and David Mitchell.
• Ballarat Health Services (Ballarat Base Hospital), St John of God Hospital, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
• ANZ J Surg. 2020 Mar 1; 90 (3): 355-359.

BackgroundWe implemented local infiltration analgesia (LIA) as a technique of providing post-operative pain management and early mobilization after arthroplasty surgery and have progressively found patients able to go home earlier. This study compares the national data on hip and knee arthroplasty provided by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and Medibank Private with our outcomes using LIA and rapid recovery.MethodsProspective study of one surgeon including 200 knees, and 165 hips in the two years till June 2016. Variables included in comparison to the two groups were: length of stay, percentage of patients transferred to rehabilitation or intensive care unit (ICU), readmitted within 30 days and average separation cost.ResultsHip replacement median length of stay in our series was two nights versus five nights, inpatient rehabilitation 7% versus 36%, ICU admission zero versus 4%, and readmissions 3.9% versus 6.0%, the average hospital separation cost in our series was $17 813 versus $26 734. Knee replacement median length of stay in our study was one night versus five nights, ICU 0.5% versus 3%, rehabilitation 4.5% versus 43%, and readmission 6% versus 7%, the average hospital separation cost in our group was $16 437 versus $27 505.ConclusionThe comprehensive approach of LIA and rapid recovery enables patients to have shorter hospitalization, lower rehabilitation incidence and a resultant reduction in health expenditure.© 2020 The Authors ANZ Journal of Surgery published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

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