The Joint Commission has published new guidelines for total hip and knee replacements as part of its ongoing revisions, which all take effect July 1.
The criteria were updated in this section, specifically to align it with clinical practice changes released by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Among the changes are new recommendations to include evaluation of risk factors prior to a surgery, including the patient's risk of opioid use history as well as a history of diabetes, and factor those components into the care plan for recovery.
It also recommends reducing opioid prescriptions for postoperative recovery and replacing it instead with either a peripheral nerve block or the use of periarticular local infiltration.
Additional monitoring of glucose levels has also been added to the criteria.