The attached article shows the benefits derived from pre-arthroplasty encounter with a Physical Medicine specialist. Most important is to set with the patient a target to be achieved post surgery.

For hip replacement, stay in a re-adaptation Center could very short or even replaced by a home protocole with the visit of trained personnel. Knee replacement is still a drastic surgery that requires sustained post-operation supervisions including the need to avoid stairs for a while.

Information is known to help the patient's understanding as they are approaching an "adventurous" time of their life; to have an artificial joint implanted in their body. This understanding clears the pathway they will go through and answers as many questions as they could have; I am sure that creates some more and these can be answered even on their admission day if they will not attend any other clinic. When the expectations will be laid out in the educational classes they know exactly what they have to expect and this stimulates their post-operative recovery. Also these classes determine the status of the needs and equipment the patients have to have, when they will be sent home after the operation. It is known that patients who undergone such classes have been discharged home even on the second postoperative day.

I asked myself the same query a while back and later looked it up. I saw a few papers published in peer reviewed journal which said the "attending pre-operative joint replacement educational programs do indeed decrease length of stay". The difference was minimal but but significant. Not only does this decrease length of stay but the outcomes are also better. Kindly refer to the articles posted below

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00264-015-2754-2

http://www.pec-journal.com/article/0738-3991(94)00671-8/abstract