How should I prepare for a hip or knee consultation?
What information, images, records, medication lists, and questions make a joint-replacement consultation more useful.
The direct answer
Bring the story of your joint and the papers that go with it: a short timeline, your medication list, any imaging or reports you have, and the questions you most want answered. The full checklist is below. The purpose is to make the first conversation focused, not to prove that you need surgery.
Describe function in concrete terms
Examples are more useful than a generic pain label: how far you can walk, whether sleep is interrupted, which stairs or movements are difficult, and what you have stopped doing.
List what has helped, what did not help enough, and any side effects or barriers.
The checklist
Everything on this list helps; none of it is required to be seen.
- A short timeline of the joint: when it started, how it has changed
- The activities that have become difficult or that you have given up
- Treatments already tried, what helped, and what did not
- Your current medications and health conditions, written down
- Recent imaging, or where it was done so it can be requested
- Operative reports and implant information, if you have had joint surgery before
- Your insurance card
- The questions you most want answered
Bring a second set of ears if you want one
A family member or trusted person may help you ask questions and remember what was said, if you want them involved.
Sources and further reading
- Total Hip ReplacementAmerican Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
- Total Knee ReplacementAmerican Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
Neel Patel, M.D. · Clinically reviewed 2026-07-29
Reviewed at least annually, and whenever major clinical guidance, source references, or practice facts change.