Objective: To translate and culturally adapt to the French Health care system a decision making tool for patient orientation after Total Hip Arthroplasty (THA) or Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA), to inpatient rehabilitation or a direct return home.
Method: A translation/back translation procedure, with cultural and linguistic adaptation, a validated methodology for self-report measures and patients' information leaflets was used.
Results: The standardized translation/back-translation procedure enabled the creation of a French Risk Assessment and Prediction Tool (RAPT), which is suitable to the French Health care system. The F-RAPT is a decision making tool that helps to better define patients' preoperative needs, and expectations concerning rehabilitation after lower limb arthroplasty, and to deliver a patient tailored preoperative education. It could also help to improve preoperative preparations by anticipating postoperative community support and carers' needs.
Conclusion: The F-RAPT is a validated decision making tool for orientating patients after THA or TKA to either inpatient rehabilitation or a direct return home. The utilisation of the RAPT could permit better screening of those patients for whom it is appropriate to go back home directly after the operation, and give the opportunity for the most complex patients to be transferred to inpatient rehabilitation services. Complementary studies are needed to validate the F-RAPT from a daily practice perspective.