What’s New in Orthopaedic Rehabilitation: Level I and II Studies

Every month, JBJS publishes a Specialty Update—a review of the most pertinent and impactful studies published in the orthopaedic literature during the previous year in 13 subspecialties. Here is a summary of key findings from Level I and II studies cited in the November 18, 2015 Specialty Update on orthopaedic rehabilitation:

General Orthopaedics/Arthroplasty

• A prospective comparison of patients who received either skilled physical therapy (PT) or a standardized home exercise program after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) found that range of motion and functional outcome were similar in the two groups after two years, but the home program was nearly half the cost of PT.¹
• A randomized trial of 198 patients who underwent TKA compared telerehabilitation with face-to-face rehab. After two months, WOMAC and KOOS scores and functional and range-of-motion tests were all noninferior for telerehabilitation.
• A randomized trial of community-dwelling elderly patients who had undergone hip fracture surgery found that an individualized home-based rehab program produced superior functional outcomes, balance, and mobility recovery when compared with a standard, non-structured home exercise program.²
• A claims-data study of 4733 people who underwent hip or knee replacement found a 29% decrease in postoperative acute service utilization among those who had preoperative PT.
• A randomized trial comparing active transcutaneous nerve stimulation (TENS), placebo TENS, and standard care during rehab for TKA found that adding either active or placebo TENS to standard care significantly reduced movement pain in the immediate postoperative period.³
• A randomized study found that in-hospital sling-based range-of-motion therapy had a clinically beneficial effect up to three months after TKA surgery in terms of passive knee flexion range of motion, compared with an in-hospital continuous passive motion protocol.⁴

Achilles Tendon

• A randomized trial comparing weight-bearing and non-weight-bearing for nonoperative treatment of Achilles tendon ruptures found no significant between-group differences in the Total Rupture Score or heel-rise strength.
• A systematic review and meta-analysis comprising 402 patients who had undergone surgical Achilles tendon repair found that postoperative early weight-bearing and early ankle motion exercises were associated with a lower minor complication rate and greater functional recovery when compared with conventional immobilization.⁵

Pediatrics

• A randomized trial comparing 12 weeks of individualized resistance training to physiotherapy without resistance training in adolescents and young adults with bilateral spastic cerebral palsy found that neither group demonstrated improvements in performance of daily physical activity.⁶

Motion Analysis

• A randomized trial of three methods of weight-bearing training (verbal instruction, bathroom scale training, and haptic biofeedback) found that haptic feedback was superior to the other methods at helping patients maintain weight-bearing status.⁷

Amputation and Prosthetics

• A systematic review of studies comparing rigid versus soft dressings after amputation determined that rigid dressings resulted in significantly shorter time from amputation to fitting of a prosthesis.⁸
• A randomized trial of phantom pain found that a protocol of progressive muscle relaxation, mental imagery, and phantom exercises yielded more significant reductions in the rate and intensity of phantom pain than a program of standard physical therapy.⁹

Low Back Pain

• Among patients with low back pain, a three-way randomized trial (standard care, standard care + extensible lumbosacral orthoses, and standard care + inextensible lumbosacral orthoses) found that inextensible lumbar orthoses led to a greater improvement in Oswestry Disability Index scores than the other two approaches.¹⁰

References

1. Büker N,,Akkaya S, Akkaya N, Gökalp O, Kavlak E, Ok N, Kıter AE, Kitiş A.Comparison of effects of supervised physiotherapy and a standardized home program on functional status in patients with total knee arthroplasty: a prospective study. J Phys Ther Sci. 2014 Oct;26(10):1531-6. Epub 2014 Oct 28.
2. Salpakoski A, Törmäkangas T, Edgren J, Kallinen M, Sihvonen SE, Pesola M,Vanhatalo J, Arkela M, Rantanen T, Sipilä S. Effects of a multicomponent home-based physical rehabilitation program on mobility recovery after hip fracture: a randomized controlled trial. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2014 May;15(5):361-8. Epub 2014 Feb 20.
3. Rakel BA, Zimmerman MB, Geasland K, Embree J, Clark CR, Noiseux NO,Callaghan JJ, Herr K, Walsh D, Sluka KA. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation for the control of pain during rehabilitation after total knee arthroplasty: A randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled trial. Pain. 2014 Dec;155(12):2599-611.Epub 2014 Sep 28.
4. Mau-Moeller A, Behrens M, Finze S, Bruhn S, Bader R, Mittelmeier W. The effect of continuous passive motion and sling exercise training on clinical and functional outcomes following total knee arthroplasty: a randomized active-controlled clinical study. Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2014 May 9;12:68.
5. Huang J, Wang C, Ma X, Wang X, Zhang C, Chen L. Rehabilitation regimen after surgical treatment of acute Achilles tendon ruptures: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Am J Sports Med. 2015 Apr;43(4):1008-16. Epub 2014 May 2.
6. Bania TA, Dodd KJ, Baker RJ, Graham HK, Taylor NF. The effects of progressive resistance training on daily physical activity in young people with cerebral palsy: a randomised controlled trial. Disabil Rehabil. 2015 Jun 9:1-7. [Epub ahead of print].
7. Fu MC, DeLuke L, Buerba RA, Fan RE, Zheng YJ, Leslie MP, Baumgaertner MR, Grauer JN. Haptic biofeedback for improving compliance with lower-extremity partial weight bearing. Orthopedics. 2014 Nov;37(11):e993-8.
8. Churilov I, Churilov L, Murphy D. Do rigid dressings reduce the time from amputation to prosthetic fitting? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Ann Vasc Surg. 2014 Oct;28(7):1801-8. Epub 2014 Jun 6.
9. Brunelli S, Morone G, Iosa M, Ciotti C, De Giorgi R, Foti C, Traballesi M. Efficacy of progressive muscle relaxation, mental imagery, and phantom exercise training on phantom limb: a randomized controlled trial. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2015Feb;96(2):181-7. Epub 2014 Oct 23.
10. Morrisette DC, Cholewicki J, Logan S, Seif G, McGowan S. A randomized clinical trial comparing extensible and inextensible lumbosacral orthoses and standard care alone in the management of lower back pain. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2014 Oct 1;39(21):1733-42.