Knee patients 'could benefit from high impact activity'
Published on 15 Mar 2010
Patients who have undergone knee replacement surgery find they are
able to lead a more active lifestyle without putting themselves at
risk of early implant failure.
At present,
US-based knee health organisation The Knee Society recommends that
knee replacement patients avoid high
impact activities, such as jogging, aerobics, football and manual
labour, that could place increased pressure on the new joint.
A study presented to the 2010 Annual Meeting of
the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), however, found
that in some cases, participating in non-recommended activities
actually resulted in better clinical scores following knee replacement.
Led by Dr Sebastian Parratte, an orthopaedic surgeon at the
Mayo Clinic in the US and Marseille's Hospital Sainte-Marguerite in
France, the researchers used Knee Society scores and the Cox model
to analyse patient results and implant durability.
They assessed 218 people aged between 18 and 90 who
admitted to taking part in a non-recommended activity after knee replacement at the Mayo Clinic in
the US, and 317 people who stuck to guidance relating to physical
activity following the surgery.
After an
average of seven and a half years, the study found there were no
significant differences in implant durability between the two
groups, while the 'sport' group actually showed higher knee
functionality scores than the control group.
"We hypothesised that high impact activities would
not increase the risk of implant failure, but we did not foresee
that such activities might actually improve clinical
results," said Dr Parratte.
In 2007, more than
70,000 knee replacements were carried out in England and
Wales.
A spokesman for Arthritis Research
UK welcomed the findings from the study, adding that more older
patients had higher expectations of activity levels after a knee replacement surgery than in the
past, and wanted to be able to do as much as they did before
developing arthritis.
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