First, find out what you’ll be given
Before a planned operation, especially a hip, knee, shoulder or spine operation, most hospitals run a pre-assessment. For joint replacements this often includes a physical therapist or occupational therapist, who asks about your home: the height of your bed and chairs, your stairs, your bathroom, and who will be with you. Some teams visit your home or ask for photos and measurements.
That assessment is the single best guide to what you need, and it often comes with equipment. In the UK, walking aids and many bathroom and toilet aids are lent by the hospital or the local community equipment service, usually at no cost. In the US, a walker, crutches or a cane is commonly provided on discharge or covered by insurance as durable medical equipment when your doctor prescribes it. Bathroom items such as shower chairs and raised toilet seats are often not covered in the US, so those are more likely to be yours to buy.
So the first rule is simple: don’t buy anything big until you’ve asked what the hospital supplies. Ask at your pre-assessment appointment, or call the ward or the therapy team. A useful set of questions:
- Will I be given a walker, crutches or a cane, and which type?
- Will someone assess my toilet, bath or shower, and will I be lent anything for them?
- Do I need hip or spinal precautions, and for how long?
- Will I go home in compression stockings, and how many pairs?
- Is there anything you’d like me to buy before I come in?
The things people regret buying
A walker or crutches bought in advance
This is the most common one. Walking aids come in several types: standard frames you lift, two-wheeled frames you push, four-wheeled rollators with a seat, forearm crutches, underarm crutches. The right one depends on your operation, your balance and how much weight you’re allowed to put through the leg. It also has to be set to your height.
A physical therapist will choose the type, adjust it, and teach you to use it on the ward, usually on the first or second day after surgery. The one you bought online may be the wrong type, and a four-wheeled rollator in particular can roll away from someone who isn’t yet steady. If you’re given one, you won’t need your own. If you aren’t, you’ll know exactly which type to buy.
A wheelchair
After a hip or knee replacement, walking is the treatment. You’ll be up on the first day, and the aim is to walk a little more each day. A wheelchair at home tends to replace the short walks that make recovery go well. There are exceptions, such as some foot and ankle operations with a long period of no weight on the leg, or a long day out, but those are better solved by borrowing or renting for the few occasions you need one.
A new recliner or a lift chair
A recliner feels like the obvious purchase, and for a few people it helps, particularly after shoulder surgery, when sleeping semi-upright is more comfortable. For most people it isn’t needed. What matters after a hip or knee operation is a firm chair with arms, a seat high enough that your knees are level with or slightly below your hips, and no low, soft sofa. Many people already have a suitable dining chair or armchair, and a firm cushion or a set of furniture risers can fix one that is too low.
Our guide Do you need a recliner after surgery? goes through who actually benefits.
An adjustable or hospital-style bed
These are occasionally lent for people who will be confined to bed, which is unusual after planned surgery. For almost everyone, the answer is to make the existing bed easier: the right height to sit on and stand up from, a clear path to the bathroom, a light within reach, and pillows arranged to support the position you’ve been told to sleep in. A wedge pillow costs a tiny fraction of an adjustable base and does most of the same job.
A cold therapy machine
These units circulate iced water through a pad around the knee or shoulder and are sold as a way to control pain and swelling. Cold does help. The question is whether a machine helps more than ordinary ice, and the research comparing the two has generally found small differences at most, in pain, swelling and range of movement. Some surgeons like them and some hospitals provide them. If yours doesn’t, a couple of reusable gel packs or bags of frozen peas, wrapped in a thin towel and used for 15 to 20 minutes at a time, will do most of what the machine does.
If you’re given one, or you’d find the convenience worth the price, there’s nothing wrong with it. Just don’t buy it on the belief that recovery is worse without one.
”Healing” supplements and scar creams bought before surgery
Collagen powders, arnica, high-dose vitamins and recovery blends are marketed heavily at people having surgery. There is no good evidence that any of them speeds wound or bone healing in someone who eats a reasonable diet. Some supplements can also interfere with anesthetic or bleeding, which is why your team asks you to list everything you take, and may ask you to stop some beforehand. Eat normally, with enough protein, and tell your team about anything you already take. The one real exception is a poor appetite: if meals feel like too much in the first weeks, a protein shake is a sensible way to fill the gap. That is making up for not eating, not speeding up healing.
Scar products can wait. A wound needs to be fully closed before anything goes on it, which is usually a few weeks away. Our scar care guide explains what’s worth using and when.
Compression stockings
If you need them, you’ll usually be measured and sent home in a pair. Buying them beforehand means guessing the size and length, and a poorly fitting stocking either does nothing or does harm. The one purchase worth making is a second pair, in the size the hospital gave you, so you can wash one while wearing the other. More in our compression stockings guide.
A full “hip kit” when you may not need hip precautions
Hip kits bundle a reacher, sock aid, long shoehorn, long sponge and elastic laces, and they’re designed around hip precautions: rules about not bending past 90 degrees, crossing your legs or turning the leg inward. Many surgeons still give those precautions, but a growing number, depending on the surgical approach, give fewer or none. Ask before you buy. If you have precautions, several items in the kit are genuinely useful. If you don’t, most of them won’t be.
Pre-made recovery equipment bundles
Equipment bundles sold as one product are priced to look like a bargain, but they’re assembled for an average patient who doesn’t exist. A bundle for knee surgery will contain things you’d only need after a hip, and a general bundle will contain things that duplicate what the hospital gives you. Buying individual items after your assessment costs less and leaves you with only what you use. (A gift of comfort things, such as a book, a robe or a good pillow, is a different matter: our recovery care packages are ideas for that.)
What is worth buying ahead of time
A few things are cheap, rarely supplied, and useful to almost everyone after a hip, knee, spine or abdominal operation. These are worth having in the house before you go in.
A long-handled reacher. Picking things up off the floor is difficult after almost any operation on the legs, hips, back or abdomen. A reacher is inexpensive, and it’s the item people consistently say they used most.
Shoes that go on without bending. Slip-on shoes with a closed back and a non-slip sole, or shoes with elastic laces. Loose slippers and backless mules are a common cause of falls at home.
A shower chair or stool, if your team agrees. In the US these are rarely covered, and in the UK there can be a wait. Standing in a shower for long periods is tiring after surgery, and sitting makes it safer. Check the fit in your shower or bath first. Our bathroom preparation guide covers the options.
A sock aid, if you have hip or spinal precautions. It lets you put socks on without bending. If you won’t have precautions, you may not need one. See how to put on socks after surgery.
Night lights. A plug-in light on the route from bed to bathroom costs very little and prevents the kind of fall that happens at 3am on an unfamiliar walking aid.
A simple rule for everything else
For anything not on that list, wait. Most people are home within one to three days of a planned operation, and the first few days show you very quickly what’s missing. Online delivery is fast, and a family member can pick up almost anything locally. It’s much easier to buy the one thing you find you need than to guess at ten things you might.
The money is better spent on the things that actually shape recovery: a freezer stocked with easy meals, someone to help for the first few days, and transport to your follow-up appointments.