Eight Weeks Pre-habilitation Increases Functional Performance

Abstract

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) involves removal of an arthritic knee joint with replacement by a prosthetic device. Recovery from this procedure requires prolonged rehabilitation. PURPOSE This study compared the effects of an 8-week pre-operative exercise program (pre-habilitation) consisting of strength, flexibility, and step training with results compared to usual care. METHODS Two male subjects between 65–66 years of age volunteered for the study and were randomly assigned to either an experimental (pre-habilitation) group or a control (usual care) group. Each subject completed four test trials at time points consisting of: 8-weeks prior to surgery (T1), one week before surgery (T2), four weeks after surgery (T3), and 12 weeks after surgery (T4). Functional tests performed during each visit consisted of distance covered in 6-minutes walk, 30-second sit to stand and time to ascend and descend two flights of 11 stairs. RESULTS In comparing change scores between the two subjects from T1 and T4 testing points, the pre-habilitation subject was able to walk an additional 690 ft, and performed 4 additional sit to stand repetitions than the usual care subject. Time for stair climbing was 1.8 seconds longer in the pre-habilitation subject than usual care. CONCLUSIONS Results of pre-habilitation program prior to TKA showed improvement in performance of the majority of functional test parameters indicating potential benefit of pre-operative exercise prior to TKA surgery. Supported by a grant from the NIH (NINR) #1 R01 NR008135-01A2