Use of Aids following Total Hip Replacement

The Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act (1970) gave an impetus to the provision of aids to disabled people in the community. There has been concern that many aids are being supplied but not used. A number of studies have shown that the proportion of unused aids varies from 21010 (Hollings & Haworth, 1978) through 25% (Hillingdon, 1977) to 33% (Thornely et al., 1977; Ward et al ., 1979). One source of wastage is the non-return of aids required for only a brief period of disability. In this paper, the use of aids by a group of patients following a Charnley total hip replacement is described. This was investigated as part of a study which examined expectations of patients in relation to their functional outcome (Haworth et al., 1980).