It’s estimated that over 50,000 knee replacements are performed in Australia every year so there is bound to be a number of stories, opinions and ideas about what to expect at your local club, neighbourhood or at work floating around. Some of them will be very helpful, some may not be exactly accurate and any indication on how your knee replacement journey may go.
Despite the vast amount of total knee replacements completed and studies done on outcomes even what the research suggests can be confusing.
So here’s a few tips from our end taking into account the latest research and why we like to do things a certain way at Sports and Orthopaedic Physio given we have seen our fare amount of replacement rehabilitation stories as well.
Manage the pain.
The initial week and early days following your operation will unfortunately be painful but its important you manage the pain well with the aid of your surgeon or GP. You should be feeling much better and quite comfortable by week two enabling you to come off the more significant pain medication. By week six your pain should be very minimal and the old osteoarthritic pain fast becoming a distant memory.
For a good outcome it's important you get moving early on, this means from Day 1!
This includes both walking and getting your knee moving both forwards (extension) and backwards (flexion) You’ll be given guidance about your exercises and walking by the inpatient Hospital Physio staff and us here at Sports and Orthopaedic Physio. If you don’t get your knee moving early there is a concern that scar tissue can form which will result in a permanently stiff knee that won’t be functional at all.
The earlier we can get your muscles working the better for function and pain reduction.
It's vital that we get your muscles working early on which will not only allow you to do more throughout your recovery but also reduce some of the secondary guarding or inhibition and pain you may experience in the early stages of your recovery.
Stick to the plan.
As alluded, we do these often and have done for a little while now. Not to beat our own drum or to say your journey may go or do things differently. Just that we have a plan….and we have a plan if the first plan isn’t going to plan. We also aim for an optimal result, thus the plan. By week three we aim to have full restoration of our expected range of movement and really start to focus on lower limb strength. By week six we aim to have you safely descending stairs and walking 30 minutes non-stop. So if you stick to the plan all should go to plan!
Physio?
The research is a little blurry on this one. If you are going well, not a lot of Physiotherapy is required which is reflected in the literature. What does appear to be vital and required is movement and exercise. Knowing and guiding you through which ones to do, when to do them, when to do more or less and how to do them is the Physio’s job. So making the total knee recovery journey easier, more comfortable and on track it's far easier to have a “project manager” in your Physio.
If at all confused, getting bogged down in reading all the blogs or wanting a professional opinion on the anecdotal stories you have heard; we are here to help.
If you are at all interested in our research references, I am all to happy to send you some literature.
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