Understanding the apprehension and concern haunting patients before a total knee arthroplasty

PURPOSE: The aim of this prospective study was to understand the fear and apprehension factors that play on patient’s mind before total knee arthroplasty. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included 500 consecutive patients (375 females and 125 males) who were scheduled to undergo total knee arthroplasty the next day. The patients were asked to list the most important fear in their mind regarding the operation in descending order of importance. They were given a questionnaire form which contained several capture points, including age, gender, educational background, occupation, and provision of help at home. Preoperative pain was measured by using the visual analog score, and its influence on the patients’ fear and apprehension factors was also measured. RESULTS: In this study, 58% of patients (50 males, 40%; 240 females, 64%) were fearful of the pain that they would experience after surgery and during the postoperative physiotherapy. The female patients showed more fear of pain than their male counterparts (P < 0.05). 18% of the patients (40 males, 32%; 50 females, 13%) listed whether they will be able to walk and perform activities of daily living after surgery as the most important fear. The male patients had more fear of returning to normal walking (P < 0.05). 20% of the patients (30 males, 24%; 70 females, 19%) were fearful about getting adequate home help after discharge from hospital (P > 0.05). 4% of patients were concerned about withstanding such a major operation. There was no difference between male and female patients (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The majority of the patients experience apprehension of pain in the perioperative period of TKA. Preoperative counseling benefits pain management by alleviating the patient’s concerns about the fear of postoperative pain and apprehension of returning to normal walking. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s42836-021-00069-5.