Surgical Priority 5 from the Early Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis PSP

UNCERTAINTY: In people with early OA does timing affect the outcome for non joint replacement surgery e.g. osteotomy, arthroplasty? (JLA PSP Surgical Priority 5)
Overall ranking amongst surgical questions	5
JLA question ID	0041/5
Extra explanatory note	Original question: "Assuming surgery for osteoarthritis is necessary, does its timing affect the outcome?" 'necessary' was considered inappropriate so removed in the reworded question Outcomes; Measures for surgical priorities should reflect changes in tissue, patient and cost effectiveness
Evidence	None identified
Health Research Classification System category	Musculoskeletal

Extra information provided by this PSP
Original uncertainty examples	Is it better to operate sooner rather than later to avoid muscle wastage and deterioration? ~ Is it better to have the operation now, whilst I'm healthy, or later when things are worse? ~ Why do i keep getting told I'm too young for a hip replacement? ~ At what point does a replacement become necessary?
Submitted by	21 patient/carers, 10 clinicians and 3 carer/clinician

PSP information
PSP unique ID	0041
PSP name	Early Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis
Total number of uncertainties identified by this PSP.	52 (To see a full list of all uncertainties identified, please see the detailed spreadsheet held on the JLA website)
Date of priority setting workshop	26 February 2016