What’s Important: Postoperative Care Planning. Recognizing the Central Role of Pets in Many Patients’ Lives

America has a love affair with pets, and the nation is not alone. Dogs, cats, and an assorted variety of animals have become sources of companionship and loving interaction for vast numbers of people around the world, no more so than now in this time of a pandemic when many are isolated and alone and looking for companionship. Dogs and cats in particular have found a place in homes in the U.S., with 38% of households owning a dog1 . We love our pets; we feed and care for them and walk them (or they walk us). We shower our love, attention, and hard-earned money on them to a degree that may be startling to non-pet owners, who may look at us with a perplexed mix of confusion and sympathy, shaking their heads at the occasional (or not so occasional) excesses of this love. So, what does pet ownership have to do with orthopaedics? Certainly, service animals have long had an important role in the lives of many individuals with disabilities. Therapy pets are also increasingly seen in hospitals and rehabilitation facilities because of their ability to provide psychological and emotional support and comfort, essential elements for successful rehabilitation and care. But it was in the course of research that we began to reflect more specifically on the question of pet ownership as we studied outcomes that patients desire from orthopaedic surgery and factors in their lives that they identify as important to their aftercare planning. It was a phased research project, first interviewing 65 patients who had or were about to have hip, knee, or spine surgery2 , and then surveying a larger group of patients who had or were about to have hip or knee replacement surgery.