Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Nov 2013
Comparative StudyA Self-Paired Comparison of Perioperative Outcomes Before and After Implementation of a Clinical Pathway in Patients Undergoing Total Knee Arthroplasty.
Clinical pathways commonly modify multiple variables and deviate from long-established clinical practices. Therefore, it is difficult to perform prospective, randomized clinical trials comparing "standard care" to the "new clinical pathway." The goal of this investigation was to examine the impact of clinical pathways implementation on perioperative outcomes and institutional costs in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA). ⋯ Our findings demonstrated that the use of a standardized clinical pathway reduced hospital LOS, improved clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction while reducing costs for identical surgical procedures.