A study among day-case and inpatients on an orthopaedic ward has been carried out to assess patient satisfaction. A single-page questionnaire were mailed to 445 patients, 388 (87.2%) returned the questionnaire. Three hundred and fifty five (79.8%) answers were usable. We found an overall rate of satisfaction with the given treatment of 71.3%, 20.3% were dissatisfied. We found the group of day-case patients more satisfied than the group of inpatients. The group of patients who underwent arthroscopic surgery were identified as being the most dissatisfied. There were among all patients a large group who were dissatisfied with the amount of perioperative information and especially the amount of postoperative out-patient control. We recommend a higher degree of written information including information about risk of complications and failures.