Authors (including presenting author) :
Lee L1, Chan SW1, Chan SC1 , FU H2, YAN CH2 , CHIU KY2, CHIUYYA1
Affiliation :
1. Physiotherapy Department, The Duchess of Kent Children’s Hospital at Sandy Bay
2. Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology , Queen Mary Hospital
Introduction :
Hydrotherapy is a unique form of exercise training. It can unload painful joints and facilitate recruitment of muscles for better muscle strengthening and joint mobilization. Patients after knee replacement surgeries commonly encounter pain, post op swelling and muscle deconditioning requiring exercise capacity retraining. Hydrotherapy is firstly introduced in our post-operative rehabilitation program after joint replacement surgeries in DKCH to facilitate functional recovery.
Objectives :
To evaluate the effectiveness of hydrotherapy training to improve functional recovery and exercise capacity after joint replacement surgeries.
Methodology :
Patients with knee replacement surgeries done were recruited. They would be arranged for a course of 10 sessions of hydrotherapy training as out patients after wound healed. The training program included varies hydrotherapy techniques like “Aichi ” that involves a combination of motor control of knees and weight shift in different directions for muscle strength and exercise endurance training. Assessments were performed before and after intervention. These include Timed up and go test ( TUG) , 2 minute walk test ( 2MW) , knee range of motion, Numeric pain rating scale ( NPRS ) at rest and during walking and the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Score ( KOOS).
Result & Outcome :
Descriptive statistics was used for demographic data. Paired t test ( p< 0.005) was used to compare outcomes before and after hydrotherapy training.
24 patients were recruited in 2018 with mean age of 64.9 (SD 4.9). All patients reported high satisfaction in pain reduction and improvement in functional mobility. These were reflected by significant improvement in pain score at rest ( p<0.001 ) and during walking ( p< 0.001 ), knee flexion range ( p< 0.001), knee flexion deformity correction ( p<0.001) , TUG ( p<0.001), 2MW ( p<0.001 ) and in KOOS ( p< 0.001 ) after hydrotherapy training.
Hydrotherapy training is effective in speeding up functional recovery and improving exercise capacity after joint replacement surgeries.
Co-location with:
