Background: Adequate preoperative planning is the first and most crucial step in the successful completion of a revision total joint arthroplasty. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the availability, adequacy and accuracy of operative notes of primary surgeries in patients requiring subsequent revision and to construct comprehensive templates of minimum necessary information required in the operative notes to further simplify re-operations, if they should become necessary.
Methods: The operative notes of 144 patients (80 revision THA's and 64 revision TKA's) who underwent revision total joint arthroplasty at Stanford Hospital and Clinics in the year 2013 were reviewed.