Desert Springs Physical Therapy - Silver City, NM

FOR years, people with worn-out knees were told to wait as long as possible before opting for replacement. Wait until you are older, the thinking went, so the joint will outlive you.

But medical experts say doctors and patients are pushing the limits of their old joints too far. Improvements in artificial joint technology and surgical techniques mean replacements are lasting longer than ever — often 20 years or more. But doctors are still advising candidates for replacement to “wait until you can’t stand it.” As a result, some patients wait until the cartilage in their knees wears out completely, leaving them housebound and with painful bone-on-bone rubbing in their knees.

Read the rest of this entry »

Using infrared cameras and other devices, the researchers assessed how 12 subjects with a recent knee replacement and 12 controls went from a seated to a standing position. Participants were tested at three months after surgery, and one year after surgery.

Even after a year, knee patients bent forward significantly more than the control group, says senior author Lynn Snyder-Mackler, professor of physical therapy at the University of Delaware. The motion is kind to the knee but places added strain on the hip and on the opposite leg. “One of the things that happens after total knee or total hip” surgery, says Snyder-Mackler, “is that you end up with problems on the other side, both the hip and the knee.” One solution, she says, is for the patient to work with his or her physical therapist on a sitting-to-standing motion that is not bent as far forward.

The study appeared last month in the journal Physical Therapy.

New England Journal of Medicine Study Questions Value of Knee Surgery

A new study questioning the usefulness of arthroscopic surgery for osteoarthritis of the knee should encourage patients to consider physical therapy as an effective non-surgical option, according to the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). The study was published in the September 11 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

The study found that physical therapy, combined with comprehensive medical management, is just as effective at relieving the pain and stiffness of moderate to severe osteoarthritis of the knee as surgery.

Read the rest of this entry »