I’m wondering about my mother and her total knee replacement. She was in so much pain before the operation. Now she’s having a longer stay in the hospital than expected. Does this mean she’ll have a worse result?

Not necessarily. Studies show that patients with the most severe disease and extreme symptoms have the best results. They get more pain relief and greater improvement in function than other patients.

In fact patients with a longer length of hospital stay and unstable health seem to have the best results overall. You may not really know the final outcome for up to 12 months. Sometimes it isn’t until a year out that the real results are known.