The importance of locomotion and transfers parameters over the total Functional Independence Measure (FIM™) improvement in the hip surgery repair patients

Aim: Functional independence of individuals after hip surgery repair is a key goal of rehabilitation. These people are usually older and rehabilitation programs should be focused on that target. Their assessment should therefore be made on task-oriented interventions. Our goal is to accurately assess the functional and motor ability of patients with hip surgery using the Functional Independence Measure (FIM index).

Material-Method: We refer to 523 consecutive hip surgery patients hospitalized in the “Euromedica Arogi” rehabilitation center in 2017. FIM has 18 fields (18×7 = 126), 5 of which (5×7 = 35) refer to transfers (from and to the bed and chair or wheelchair, toilet and bath) and locomotion (walking and ascending-descending stairs). The functional capacity was evaluated within 3 days after admission and within 3 days before discharging, assessing in particular these motor parameters. We did not take into account the type of surgery because the FIM does not distinguish the technique followed but only assesses the patient’s functional capacity.

Results: The average FIM at admission was 59.66 and at discharge 82.16, a difference of 28.50 units (47.78%). The average of the five fields of the FIM transfers and locomotion parameters was: at admission 6.45 and at discharge 20.11, a difference of 13.60, an improvement of 210% of these parameters, corresponding to a 48% of the overall improvement.

Conclusions: The task-oriented rehabilitation program after hip surgery repair patients contributes to functional independence, as clearly seen by FIM’s transfers and locomotion parameters (5 fields), showing that it contributes 48% to overall improvement while the remaining 52% comes from the remaining 13 fields.