Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation
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Arch Phys Med Rehabil · Feb 2012
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyMulticenter randomized controlled trial comparing early versus late aquatic therapy after total hip or knee arthroplasty.
To evaluate if the timing of aquatic therapy influences clinical outcomes after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) or total hip arthroplasty (THA). ⋯ Early start of aquatic therapy had contrary effects after TKA when compared with THA and it influenced clinical outcomes after TKA. Although the treatment differences did not achieve statistically significance, the effect size for early aquatic therapy after TKA had the same magnitude as the effect size of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee. However, the results of this study do not support the use of early aquatic therapy after THA. The timing of physiotherapeutic interventions has to be clearly defined when conducting studies to evaluate the effect of physiotherapeutic interventions after TKA and THA.