Independent exercise and PT likely produce similar results after THA

DALLAS — According to research presented here at the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons Annual Meeting, prescribed exercise programs may produce results similar to outpatient physical therapy following total hip arthroplasty.

“I would suggest that we should adjust our standard of care in accordance with this study,” Richard H. Rothman, MD, PhD, said in his presentation.

Rothman and colleagues compared 39 patients (group 1) who received two to three sessions of outpatient physical therapy (OPT) following total hip arthroplasty (THA) to a group of 38 patients who undertook a prescribed individual exercise program after THA instead of OPT. Primary metrics of evaluation were preoperative, 1 month and 6 month values for the Harris Hip score (HHS), WOMAC and SF-36. A linear mixed model was used to evaluate these results using patients as a random effect, as well as treatment group and treatment time as variables.

Richard H. Rothman

At 1 month and 6 months postoperatively, no significant differences were observed in HHS between group 1 (67.67 and 80.19, respectively) and group 2 (71.26 and 84.68, respectively). Investigators also found no significant differences at any point in either WOMAC or SF-36 values. Patient cost per session for the OPT in non-Medicare patients ranged from $10 to $60.

In terms of what subset of patients may still benefit from the cost of OPT, “[It] would seem that they will be the patients who are elderly or infirmed with multiple comorbidities,” Rothman said. - by Christian Ingram

Reference:

Urbani BT, et al. Paper #21. Presented at: American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons Annual Meeting. Nov. 6-8, 2015; Dallas.

Disclosure: Rothman reports that he receives royalties from and is a paid consultant for Stryker.