[Mobility outcome after knee prosthesis implantation and subsequent physical therapy--factors influencing rate of success].
Osteoarthritis of the knee is considered to be the most common degenerative joint disease and finally ends up in a total knee replacement. Pain relief, restoration of a passive knee stability and improvement of functional ability are the primary goals of arthroplasties. But at the surgeons' closing, the patient for the present has just a knee "ready to function". Making the new joint function and recovering quality of life are the major outcome criteria for the rehabilitation process. This retrospective research was performed to evaluate three different rehabilitation programmes provided for patients receiving knee arthroplasties. Included were 124 patients with unilateral knee arthroplasty due to primary gonarthritis. All three rehabilitation clinics were able to improve the functional ability of the affected joints significantly, without any quantitative differences among them. The main influence factor in reaching the therapy aim (defined as: full extension and flexion > or = 90 degrees) seems to be the length of stay in the rehab clinic, which in turn is dependent on the presence of complications. On the other hand complications did not directly affect the achievement of the rehab goal, neither did age of patients, number of days between discharge (from acute care) and admission (to the rehab clinic), nor any accompanying illnesses. There, hence, have to be additional factors which influence the length of stay and so indirectly the rehab aim, factors which obviously are not accessible to quantitative objective measuring methods.
Gehrke
W
W
Zentrum für Orthopädie, Unfall- und Wiederherstellungschirurgie, Klinikum Suhl.
Arnold
W
W
D000368:Aged; D019645:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020370:Osteoarthritis, Knee / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D010348:Patient Care Team; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities; D012189:Retrospective Studies