Impact of bone quality on surgical decision-making in total hip arthroplasty: a qualitative analysis in the UK
Introduction For total hip arthroplasty (THA) to be successful, surgeons need to make several decisions ranging from implant choice to impaction force. It is unclear, however, whether and how bone quality affects surgeon’s decision-making and how surgeons evaluate bone quality. Objectives This inductive/deductive qualitative hybrid study aims to explore the impact of bone quality on the decision-making of surgeons performing elective primary THA. This study will evaluate: (1) whether surgeons consider bone quality as an important factor for surgical decision-making; (2) how bone quality influences surgical decision-making; and (3) how surgeons assess bone quality preoperatively and intraoperatively. Design This is a qualitative study, involving inductive/deductive hybrid thematic analysis. Setting Semistructured interviews were conducted virtually via Microsoft Teams and on hospital premises. Participants Purposive and snowball sampling methods were used to recruit consultant orthopaed
