The observation of outcomes on early postoperative individual rehabilitation following total knee replacement

Objective: To discuss the effects of early postoperative individual rehabilitation following total knee replacement(TKR). Method: Forty-four patients were randomly divided into rehabilitation group and control group, each 22 subjects. All patients suffered from knee osteoarthritis were underwent the operation in hospital. All patients got the normal nursing care. In addition, the rehabilitation group got the individual rehabilitation systematically. The rehabilitation procedure consisted of four parts:the 1st period was 4d before operation, the 2nd was the 0—3rd d post operation and the 3rd and 4th period were the 4-14th d and 15—60th d respectively. The program included breath exercises, muscle strengthening, passive, active-assisted and active range of motion(ROM) exercises, balance exercises, proprioception exercises, gait training and ability to transfer independently were performed in different periods. Patients were evaluated at the 4th d before operation, the 14th d and the 60th d after operation. The evaluation indexes involved the American Knee Society score(AKSS), knee range of motion(ROM), and the duration of hospital staying after operation. Result: All the evaluation indexes had no difference between rehabilitation group and control group before operation(P0.05). At the 14th d after operation, AKSS in rehabilitation group was better than that in control group(P0.05) and at the 60th d after operation, AKSS rehabilitation group was much better than that in control group(P0.01).The knee ROM in rehabilitation group was much better than that in control group(P0.01). In rehabilitation group hospital staying duration was less than that in control group(P0.01). Conclusion: Individual rehabilitation program could facilitate function restoration and improved range of motion, shortened the duration of hospital staying significantly for the patients after TKR.