Please read- has anyone ever had a pt. that had knee replacement surgery?

[2bLPNhoneybee]

can you please share your nursing care plan with me? I really don't know what the nursing care is for this type of surgery and I really need to have something done by tuesday

please can someone help me out?

thank you:uhoh21:

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

HoneyBee, give us a start and we'll help.

:)

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

did you explore the links i posted for you on another thread?

• first of all, the patient has an incision that is healing. sometimes there will be a surgical drain left in place.
  
• any cutting into the tissues of the body is traumatic and results in the inflammation response. the cardinal signs in order of their occurrence is
  • redness (which you can't see)
    
  • heat (which, if it is considerable, will be manifested as a fever)
    
  • swelling (which, if it is considerable, can be observed as the operative knee will appear swollen compared to the non-operative knee)
    
  • and, pain (which is due to the swelling of internal tissues pressing on nerve receptors)

  [*]physical therapy is required post operatively because the patient often already has some degree of immobility from pre-surgical joint disease that has affected the muscular tone. post surgical pain also prevents the patient from moving and maintaining the mobility of the joint after surgery is important.

  [*]the operative extremity needs to be kept in proper alignment

  [*]complications of this surgery are

  • infection
    
  • fat embolism
    
  • dvt
    
  • nerve compression
    
  • dislocation of the prosthesis

this gives you these patient problems (4 possible nursing diagnoses) for a care plan for a patient who has had a knee arthroplasty. the blue underlined titles are weblinks to nursing diagnosis pages that have some nursing interventions listed on them, but you have to determine if they apply to your care plan or not.

• an open wound (impaired tissue integrity) [color=#3366ff]impaired tissue integrity
  • interventions are the directions for the assessment of the incision, dressing care and patient teaching regarding the incision and its care

  [*]pain (acute pain) [color=#3366ff]acute pain

  • interventions are how you will assess the pain, comfort measures, and pain relief strategies

  [*]mobility (impaired physical mobility) [color=#3366ff]impaired physical mobility

  • interventions will focus on how to assist the patient in achieving better mobility that includes the physical therapy plan of action, monitoring of the joint function and assessment for dislocation of the new prosthesis

  [*]potential for an infection in the surgical wound (risk for infection) [color=#3366ff]risk for infection

  • assessment and monitoring for signs and symptoms of infection of the surgical wound