A study in The Journal of Arthroplasty investigates the impact of when physical therapy following total knee arthroplasty is begun.
In the study, a total of 394 candidates were analyzed to assess the impact of starting formal physical therapy (PT) the afternoon of postoperative day (POD) 0 following total knee arthroplasty, instead of starting PT the morning of POD 1 on the length of stay (LOS) in hospital.
Researchers observed an insignificant difference in hospital LOS (intention-to-treat analysis: median of 32.0 hours for POD 0 PT versus 31.0 hours for POD 1 PT; as-treated analysis: median of 31.0 hours for POD 0 PT versus 32.0 hours for POD 1 PT).
They did not find any significant variations in the satisfaction with inpatient PT (10.0 versus 10.0), patient-reported readiness for discharge at the time of discharge (10.0 versus 10.0), and POD 0 pain (3.3 versus 4.0).
[Source: MDLinx Orthopedics]
