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The recovery and rehabilitation process plays a crucial role in helping you get back on your feet and resume an active lifestyle. It can help you heal from surgery faster and greatly improve your chances for long-term success. It’s important that you commit to a plan and push yourself to do as much as possible each day. Read this timeline to learn what you can expect during the critical 12 weeks of recovery and rehab, and how to set goals for your healing.… Read the Rest

New York City—March 24, 2015

A study by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) finds that patients who go home after knee replacement and receive physical therapy at home do as well as those who go to an in-patient rehabilitation facility.

“There’s a common belief that people should go to a rehab facility after joint replacement,” said Douglas E. Padgett, MD, the lead investigator and chief of the Adult Reconstruction and Joint Replacement Service at HSS. “Our study found that patients can be safely discharged to their home following knee replacement, dispelling the notion that rehabilitation at an inpatient facility is essential for a successful recovery.”

The study, which will be presented the annual meeting of the American College of Orthopaedic Surgeons in Las Vegas on March 24, analyzed data for more than 2,400 patients enrolled in Hospital for Special Surgery’s Knee Replacement Registry … Read the Rest

Outcomes comparable for in-person and in-home telerehabilitation following total knee replacement surgery

ROSEMONT, Ill. – Patients who received rehabilitation instructions via video teleconference, or “telerehabilitation,” following total knee replacement (TKR) surgery had comparable outcomes to patients who received in-person physical therapy, according to a study appearing in the July 15 issue of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery (JBJS). “This study is the first to provide strong evidence for use of telerehabilitation as an alternative to conventional face-to-face care following total knee replacement surgery,” said Hélène Moffet, PhD, lead study author, physical therapist and professor at Université Laval in Quebec.

Post-surgical rehabilitation can be costly, time-consuming and challenging, especially when the patient or physical therapist must travel a significant distance to receive or deliver rehabilitation services. In a preliminary study, researchers randomly divided 205 patients scheduled for hospital discharge following TKR into two groups: … Read the Rest

Public release date: 21-Dec-2011

Opposite effect found after total hip arthroplasty in a new study in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Philadelphia, PA – Despite increased use of total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA), there is a notable lack of consensus about optimal postoperative treatment. Aquatic therapy has been shown to have a beneficial effect, and it is typically begun two weeks after surgery, after the wound has healed. According to a new study published in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, beginning aquatic therapy just 6 days after TKA may lead to improved results, while delaying its onset an additional week may be more appropriate after a THA.

“This multicenter study demonstrates that the timing of physiotherapy measures, such as aquatic therapy, has clinically relevant effects after TKA,” says lead investigator Thoralf R. Liebs, MD, of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of … Read the Rest

Updated 1/30/2010

Recreational exercisers have a much lower incidence of knee replacements than their non-exercising peers. One study from Finland showed that the more years a person exercised, the less likely he was to require a knee replacement (Rheumatology, Volume 40, 2001). Regular exercise strengthens bones and joints and helps to prevent damage to the joints.

Yet other studies have shown that former competitive athletes have the highest rate of knee replacements. Athletic competition requires a person to compete on preset days, whether he is injured or not. Competition requires year-round training and athletes hate to take days off, so they often train and compete while injured.

It is amazing how many coaches and exercise instructors preach mental toughness and the ability to exercise through pain, when this kind of thinking often results in catastrophic injuries that damage million-dollar athletes permanently. When a pain … Read the Rest

What is the largest joint in our body? Answer: The Knee.

The knee is the connecting point of a total of three bones in our legs: the lower end of the thigh bone or the femur, the upper end of the shinbone or the tibia, and the knee cap or the patella. Other parts of the knee are the cartilage or the shock absorbing cushions in between muscles, the tendons or the cords connecting muscles to bones, and the ligament or the bands connecting our bones to other bones. Any damage to all of these parts are accounted for by a Knee physical therapy, and just the ligament alone is so vulnerable to pulling, stretching and tearing, and with each knee having four major supporting ligaments: the anterior cruciate ligament or ACL at the center of knee, the posterior cruciate ligament or PCL also at the center, … Read the Rest

As lifelong exercisers age, they find they can’t hit a tennis ball or golf ball as hard, run as fast, lift as heavy, or perform as well, whatever their sport. A study from Yokohama City University in Japan shows that this gradual decline is caused by loss of muscle strength. However, the most significant finding of the study was that older men can recover from hard workouts as quickly as younger men (Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism, June 2006). Another encouraging study in the same journal, from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, shows that men over 60 who exercise regularly are far stronger than their non-exercising counterparts.

A study from Brock University in Canada also shows that older people can recover from hard exercise as fast as young children can (Exercise and Sports Science Reviews, July 2006). The authors feel … Read the Rest