Pastoral care and religious support as a part of treatment of religious patient with the severe form of osteoarthritis.

Introduction: Religious needs of patients are consistently being neglected in the clinical medicine. Pastoral care is a religious support which a religious patient receives from priests, chaplains, imams, rabbis or other religious authorities. Religious support, in terms of clinical medicine, is a spiritual support which religious patients obtain from religious and trained medical workers.

Diagnostic accuracy of the A-test and cutoff points for assessing outcomes and planning acute and post-acute rehabilitation of patients surgically treated for hip fractures and osteoarthritis.

Background/aim: The A-test is used in daily clinical practice for monitoring functional recovery of orthopedic patients during early rehabilitation. The aim of this study was to determine the accuracy of A-test and cutoff point at which the test can separate patients with and without functional disability at the end of early rehabilitation. Also, it was important to determine whether A-test has that discriminative ability (and at which cutoff points) in the first days of early rehabilitation in order to have time to plan post acute rehabilitation.

The A-test: assessment of functional recovery during early rehabilitation of patients in an orthopedic ward--content, criterion and construct validity.

Background/aim: The A-test was designed for assessment of functional recovery during early rehabilitation of patients in an orthopedic ward. This performance-based test consists of 10 items for assessing basic activities by a six level ordinal scale (0-5). Total scores can range from 0 to 50, i.

The A-test--reliability of functional recovery assessment during early rehabilitation of patients in an orthopedic ward.

Background/aim: There are few tests for evaluation of functional abilities of patients surgically treated for hip fractures or osteoarthritis during early rehabilition period. The aim of this study was to investigate reliability (interobserver reproducibility and internal consistency) of the A-test, an original test for functional recovery evaluation during early rehabilitation of patients in an orthopedic ward.

Methods: The investigation included 105 patients (55 patients with hip osteoarthritis that underwent arthroplasty and 50 surgically treated patients with hip fracture).

The effects of short-term preoperative physical therapy and education on early functional recovery of patients younger than 70 undergoing total hip arthroplasty.

Background/aim: Hip arthroplasty is a routine operation which relieves pain in patients with osteoarthritis. The role of physical therapy after hip arthroplasty was recognized, but the importance of preoperative physical therapy and education is still to be judged. The aim of this paper was to investigate the effect of short-term preoperative program of education and physical therapy on patients' early functional recovery immediately after total hip arthroplasty (THA).