A comparison of the clinical outcomes of early rehabilitation after bilateral and unilateral total knee arthroplasty / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To observe and compare the functional outcomes of early rehabilitation of persons who received primary bilateral or unilateral total knee arthroplasty (TKA).Methods Sixty-eight subjects were divided into a unilateral TKA group (36 cases) and a bilateral TKA group (32cases).All received the same professional rehabilitation program during an average postoperative hospital stay of (15.00 ± 3.71 ) days.At discharge,a visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to rate pain.Active range of motion (AROM) of the involved knee,knee injury and an osteoarthritis outcome score (KOOS) were also assessed.The KOOS and knee society score (KSS) were evaluated at follow-up about 11 months later.Results There was no significant difference between the two groups in any assessment at discharge,nor in the KOOS and KSS-Ⅰ assessments at follow-up.The KOOS of both groups at follow-up had improved significantly compared with that at discharge.The KSS-Ⅱ results in the bilateral group were slightly better than those in the unilateral group at follow-up,and that difference was significant.Conclusions Bilateral TKA patients and unilateral TKA patients had the same clinical outcomes after early postoperative rehabilitation,but the functional outcomes of bilateral TKA patients were better than those of unilateral TKA patients a year later.