Research and News
Posts tagged knee arthritis
“Prehabilitation” with Thera-Band® helps total knee replacement patients recover better
Dec 4th
Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is common in older adults, affecting about 4.3 million in the United States. Knee OA sometimes leads to joint replacement surgery in advanced stages of the disease – nearly a half-million total knee replacements are performed annually in the US. Researchers at the University of Louisville wanted to evaluate the efficacy of a pre-operative exercise program (“prehabilitation”) for patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA) surgery. 54 older adults with knee OA were randomized into a control group (usual care) or an exercise group completing exercise 3 times per week (1 supervised session, and 2 at home). Patients used Thera-Band® Resistance Bands supplied by Thera-Band Academy.
Download the Total Knee Prehabilitation Exercise Program here
The study, published in Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, found that prehab participants significantly increased their leg strength and mobility after surgery, while the control group did not. At 3 months after surgery, the prehab group improved performance on all 4 functional tasks, in contrast to the control group who improved in only 2 out of the 4. Lead investigator, Robert Topp PhD RN, noted, “This Thera-Band exercise program definitely supports the theory of prehabilitation in total knee patients.” Dr. Topp published a similar summary article in the ICAA More >
Improve function before knee replacement surgery through "prehab" exercise
Apr 6th
Knee osteoarthritis affects about 4.3 million people in the United States, and nearly 400,000 knee replacements are performed each year. It’s been suggested that exercises performed before surgery help improve a patient’s recovery after surgery; this is known as “prehab,” or pre-surgical rehabilitation exercise. Researchers at the University of Louisville recently determined that prehab is effective at improving function both before and after total knee replacement surgery. Their prehab exercise program using Thera-Band resistance bands were featured in a new article published in Functional U, published by the International Council on Active Aging.
Topp R, et al. 2009. Improve function before knee replacement surgery. Functional U. 7(2):1-8.
Exercise as good as surgery for knee arthritis
Mar 31st
Knee osteoarthritis affects millions around the world with pain and disability. There is no known cure for arthritis, and the course of treatment is based on symptom management through medication, surgery and physical therapy. Some arthritis sufferers believe that exercise may cause more harm than good, and typically opt for arthroscopic surgery to ‘clean-out’ the knee. In addition to the cost of surgery, there are obvious risks. Despite the high number of arthroscopic surgeries for knee arthritis (also known as “debridement”), little evidence supported its efficacy.
Researchers from the University of Western Ontario in Canada performed a randomized controlled trial (the highest level of evidence) on 190 patients with moderate to severe knee osteoarthritis. Their goal was to determine if physical and medical therapy was as effective as arthroscopic surgery. The exercise program lasted for 12 weeks, including one hour per week supervised by a therapist, and daily exercise twice a day. After the 12 weeks, the patients continued their home programs unsupervised.
The researchers found that physical therapy, including Thera-Band exercises was as effective as arthroscopic surgery for treating knee osteoarthritis. Both groups had similar outcomes for pain and function after a 2 year follow-up. The results, published in the New More >
