Rehabilitation After Urgent or Elective Orthopedic Surgery: The Role of Resilience in Elderly Patients

Purpose The aim of this investigation was to assess resilience within an elderly population during postacute rehabilitation for orthopedic surgery and to identify the role of resilience on rehabilitation outcomes by comparing hip fracture and elective patients (total knee and hip arthroplasty). Design We conducted a prospective study in an orthopedic rehabilitation department. Methods On admission and on discharge, 80 patients aged over 60 years underwent a multidimensional evaluation with the Resilience Scale, the Functional Independence Measure (FIM), the Multidimensional Prognostic Index, and the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF. Findings Hip-fractured patients had a lower level of resilience. High-resilient fracture patients achieved higher FIM scores. For elective patients, no differences on FIM score occurred for different resilience levels. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance Resilience plays a significant role in reaching optimal functional recovery in hip-fractured elderly people. Results suggest the introduction of early routine assessment of resilience in future outcome studies in rehabilitation.