Ferid Krupic 1,3, Sylvia Määttä2, Göran Garellick 1,3, Elisabeth Dahlborg Lyckhage2,4, Johan Kärrholm 1,3 Department of Orthopaedics, Institute of Clinical Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden1 The Centre for Gender Equal Care, Västra Götalandsregionen, Institute of Health and Care Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden2 The Swedish Hip Arthroplasty Register, Registercentrum VGR, SE-413 43, Gothenburg, Sweden3 Institute of Nursing, University of West, Trollhatatan, Sweden4

BACKGROUND Total hip replacement is an operation that usually leads to pain relief and improved health related quality of life (HRQoL). Previous studies have demonstrated the importance of information about upcoming surgery. Therefore, it was of interest to study how both immigrants, whose first language was not Swedish, and Swedish patients described pre-operative information. MATERIAL AND METHODS Individual interviews were conducted with 10 immigrants and 10 Swedish participants. The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The study was carried out in western Sweden from March to November 2010. RESULTS The findings revealed that pre-operative information for all patients undergoing elective total hip replacement was limited. Patients from both groups expressed concern about inadequate preoperative information pertaining to the surgery, implant selection, pain relief, choice of anaesthesia, no or too short a time to put questions to the surgeon and an overall stressful situation. CONCLUSIONS Adequate preoperative information is important for optimising pain relief and shortening the hospital stay. The fact that the patients overwhelmingly rated the preoperative information as inadequate may be due to several reasons. Mental distress and the two-week interval between the time when the patient received the information and the operation might have contributed to the low degree of retention.