Physical Therapy Helps Patients Recovering from Hip Surgery

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 10% of men and 18% of women aged 60 years and older suffer from osteoarthritis. New research published in the December 2011 issue of Arthritis Care & Research is now emphasizing the important role of physical therapy and gait training in accelerating patient recovery following total hip anthroplasty for osteoarthritis.

Based in Norway, the research team recruited participants undergoing total hip anthroplasty from October 2008 to March 2010, with 68 patients randomly assigned to either a training group or a control group. Patients who received physical therapy, attended 12 sessions, with two appointments a week.  Physical therapists worked with these patients to increase their flexibility, strength, coordination, balance, and walking endurance following surgery. Each 70-minute session relied solely in weight-bearing positions and included “physical activities such as sitting to standing, walking over obstacles, walking with turns, and climbing stairs.”

The findings showed that those who took part in the therapy displayed significant improvement in physical performance measures and self-reported physical functioning five months after surgery, compared to the control group who had no physical therapy. Furthermore, when compared to baseline measures at 3 months post-surgery, patients undergoing physical therapy were four times more likely to have improved their walking distance to 164 feet or more by the fifth month.

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Source: Arthritis Care & Research, PTProductsOnline.com, “Physical Therapy Helps Those Recovering from Total Hip Anthroplasty, Study Finds”