Knee pain (chronic)
Adult

Orthopaedics

Useful Management Information

  • National definitions for elective surgery
  • Consider pre‐operative optimisation of patient with diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes, prior to referral
  • Consider pre-operative optimisation of anaemia, as defined by a haemoglobin of < 13.0g/dL in men and 12.0g/dL in women, prior to referral
  • Smoking is a contraindication to hip and knee arthroplasty surgery
  • Better health self-management program
  • Obesity is associated with an increase in complications associated with surgery – consider dietitian & weight reduction monitoring if BMI >35. Mandatory for BMI >40.
  • Chronic disease requires to be optimised prior to referral or the patients may not proceed to surgery

Clinical resources

Patient resources

Minimum Referral Criteria

Does your patient meet the minimum referral criteria?
Category 1 (appointment within 30 calendar days)
  • Suspected malignancy
  • New pain in previously well-functioning arthroplasty
Category 2 (appointment within 90 calendar days)
  • Symptoms rapidly deteriorating and causing severe disability
Category 3 (appointment within 365 calendar days)
  • Some functional impairment and/or pain persists despite maximal management
  • If the patient does not meet the criteria for referral but the referring practitioner believes the patient requires specialist review, a clinical override may be requested:
    • Please explain why (e.g. warning signs or symptoms, clinical modifiers, uncertain about diagnosis, etc.)
  • Please note that your referral may not be accepted or may be redirected to another service

Essential Referral Information

  • History of symptoms: pain, true locking, instability, swelling, recurring infections
  • Injury details (if any): date, mechanism, severity, recurrence and evolution of injury
  • Smoking status
  • HbA1C (diabetic patient referral only)
  • FBC, ESR, CRP results (if indicated by medical history)
  • Previous joint surgery
  • Results of clinical ligament and meniscus tests if completed
  • Height, weight and BMI
  • XR results - knee, weight bearing AP, lateral and skyline of both knees

If a specific test result cannot be obtained due to access, financial, religious, cultural or consent reasons a clinical override may be requested. This reason must be clearly articulated in the body of the referral.

Additional Referral Information

  • Management to date
  • Investigations for inflammatory arthropathy
  • Has non-operative management been completed?
  • Hip and knee questionnaire  (patient to complete)
Last updated 7 February 2024

Send Referrals To

Smart Referrals

Preferred Method
About Smart Referrals

Secure Web Transfer

Send to: Gold Coast Health Service District

Internal Referrals

Orthopaedics (E-Blueslips)
Orthopaedic Fracture - GCUH
Orthopaedic Fracture - Robina

Fax

(07) 5687 4497

Post

Booking and Referral Centre
Gold Coast University Hospital
1 Hospital Boulevard
Southport QLD 4215

Enquiries

1300 559 083

Related HealthPathways

No directly related pathways found

Service Availability

Dr Will Talbot

Facilities

Gold Coast University Hospital
Robina Hospital

If you would like to send a named referral, please address it to the specialist listed above, who will allocate a suitably qualified specialist to see the patient. Alternatively, you can view a full list of our specialists.

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