An Eccentrically Biased Rehabilitation Program Early after TKA Surgery

Abstract EN

Rehabilitation services are less-studied aspects of the management following total knee arthroplasty (TKA) despite long-term suboptimal physical functioning and chronic deficits in muscle function.

This paper describes the preliminary findings of a six-week (12 session) eccentrically-biased rehabilitation program targeted at deficits in physical function and muscle function, initiated one month following surgery.

A quasiexperimental, one group, pretest-posttest study with thirteen individuals (6 female, 7 male; mean age 57±7 years) examined the effectiveness of an eccentrically-biased rehabilitation program.

The program resulted in improvements in the primary physical function endpoints (SF-36 physical component summary and the six-minute walk test) with increases of 59% and 47%, respectively.

Muscle function endpoints (knee extension strength and power) also increased 107% and 93%, respectively.

Eccentrically-biased exercise used as an addition to rehabilitation may help amplify and accelerate physical function following TKA surgery.