Introduction: As knee arthroplasty is becoming more commonplace in the working population its outcome and probability of return to work is of interest. Despite a wealth of anecdotal evidence about patient return to work post knee arthroplasty there is nothing published in the recent literature. The NHS Direct patient information website quotes patients return to work about 6 to 8 weeks post knee arthroplasty. In order to address this lack of informed information we conducted a retrospective survey.

Methods: 148 consecutive patients of working age, who underwent knee arthroplasty in 2007 were identified by our Electronic Patients Record. (52 male, 96 female, average age 58 years (range 37–65 years)) They were asked to complete a simple questionnaire relating to their occupational history, arthroplasty satisfaction and their current working capacity.

Results: Our survey had a response rate of 67% (99/148 responders, 64 female and 35 male), with a range of follow up from 7 to 19 months. 39% of patients were in employment at the time of their arthroplasty, with 46 % (46/99) returning to some working capacity post surgery. 32% (32/99) patients were able to return to their exact same employment. 88% (28/32) of these patients had worked up to the date of their arthroplasty. There was no correlation between operative indication or type of prosthesis implanted and patients who returned to employment and those who did not.

Conclusion: Despite high expectation in lay literature of ability to work post knee arthroplasty, only 46% of our patients returned to any form of employment. For patients who returned to work, the duration of sick leave prior to their surgery was a strong predictor of whether they returned to any form of employment. Caution must be exercised when informing patients of likelihood of return to work post knee arthroplasty.