Patient’s satisfaction in orthopaedic and trauma practice

Although discussed in the regulation texts, patient satisfaction istoo often ignored by practitioners. Its nature, which is outlined insemantic and psychoanalytic analyses, needs to be defined so thateach of us can better deal with it.A review of case-histories of midfoot arthrodesis shows that thecorrelation between clinical data and patient satisfaction is not constant.The modifying factors are psychological ones. Inquiryamong patients allows us to find out what their worries are. In theliterature of orthopaedic traumatology, patient satisfaction isn’ttaken into account by the surgeon, who is concerned with the functionaland radiological results and whose criteria aren’t the same asthose of the patient. In sum, it appears that a patient’s satisfactionrests upon his confidence and expectations, as well as a sense of thesurgeon’s competence, – all of which are nourished by the informationsupplied to the patient.