Created for orthopaedic patients by the multdisciplinary team

Diet & Nutrition for Orthopaedic Patients

An essential component of preparing for surgery and in your rehabilitation is ensuring thta you have an adequate diet to enable healing and energy to engage with your physiotherapy.

Certain conditions such as diabetes, obesity and kidney disease require special attention and focus in both the preoperative and post operative stages.

The Food Pyramid

The Food Pyramid provides a guide of what food is required on a daily basis to ensure a balanced diet. As you recover, you will require adequate protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals to ensure optimum healing. Adhereing to the food pyramid is a good method of ensuring that you reaxch these targets.

Increase

Eat more vegetables, salad and fruit - Up to seven servings a day

Decrease

Limit intake of high fat, sugar, salt (HFSS) food and drinks

Size matters

Size matters: Use the food pyramid as a guide for serving sizes

By the time you leave the hospital you should be eating your regular diet. It is normal to loose your appetite following surgery, if it has not recovered by the time you are leaving hospital you may require nutritional supplements.

Constipation is a common complaint following surgery, caused by a change in diet pain medication and inactivity. Laxatives and stool softeners may need to be taken for a couple of weeks. It is important to increase the ammount of fiber and water in your diet to ensure regualr bowel function.

Example meal plan 1

Example meal plan 2

Diabetes

One of the biggest risk factors to developing infection is having diabetes. The best way to reduce this risk is to ensure that your blood sugars are very tightly controlled both before and after the surgery. Your sugars should be 5.7 mmol/L and your HBA1C levels below 5.6%

Obesity

Obesity is a risk factor for the development of infection and anesthetic complications. If you have a body mass index (BMI) over 40 you should try to reduce it prior to surgery. There are many weight loss methods available, you should talk to your GP about which method is best suited to your individual circumstances.