Table 2.

Surgical process characteristics in TKA patients before and after implementation of a clinical pathway were found comparable.

	before pathway implementation	after pathway implementation, without personal briefing	after pathway implementation and personal briefing
	(n = 132)	(n = 70)	(n = 58)
surgery performed by trial investigator	25%	30%	22%
median duration of surgery	88 min	83 min	87 min
median duration of indoor treatment	9 days	9 days	9 days
patients with PCCL1 „0"	42%	60%	55%
patients with PCCL1 „3" or „4"	34%	27%	24%

distribution characteristics for surgical process characteristics assessed in 132 patients, who underwent total knee arthroplasty (TKA) before implementation of a critical pathway on TKA, versus 128 patients, who underwent TKA after path implementation (the latter being stratified for attendance of a personal briefing as a voluntary part of the pathway)

¹PCCL = patient comorbidity complexicity level