As part of the interdisciplinary training days of the Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec, orthopedic surgeon Pascal-André Vendittoli received the 2019 award for excellence in care for his optimized recovery program for ambulatory hip and knee replacements. This remarkable achievement was made possible thanks to an interdisciplinary team (anesthetist, nurse, pharmacist, internal physician, orthopedist and physiotherapist) at the Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont (HMR) of the CIUSSS de l'Est-de-l'Île-de-Montréal.
Dr. Venditolli is also a full professor in the Department of Surgery at Université de Montréal and a clinician researcher in the Joint Reconstruction Research Unit at HMR.
Day surgery
In 2016, after two years of development, Dr. Vendittoli and his interdisciplinary team performed one of Canada's first day-surgery joint replacements. Since then, the HMR team has performed 300 hip and knee replacements using this protocol that lets patients go home in less than 24 hours.
Spectacular results
In August, Dr. Vendittoli published the clinical results from the day-surgery hip and knee replacement program in Orthopaedics & Traumatology: Surgery & Research. The French version of the article was published at the end of October in Revue de Chirurgie Orthopédique et Traumatologique. This study demonstrated a major reduction in complications per patient, reduced hospitalization times, and reduced hospital costs among patients who participated in the optimized recovery program.
A Canada-wide impact
Dr. Vendittoli has developed a knowledge transfer program and has taught the optimized recovery program to over 15 clinical groups in Quebec and Canada. The Canadian Patient Safety Institute also asked Dr. Venditolli to oversee an orthopedic action plan for its Enhanced Recovery After Surgery program. His role will be to implement this protocol across the country so that as many patients as possible across Canada can benefit.
In April 2019, the project won an SRS (Stars du réseau de la santé) prize, Performance category, given out by Caisse Desjardins du Réseau de la santé.