Shape up for Surgery
By Terrie Heinrich Rizzo
You’ve found a surgeon to replace your worn-out knees or hips, and you’ve scheduled your joint replacement surgery. You’ve taken the pre-surgery class at the hospital, read all you can and talked to others who have gone before you. Still, you may feel trepidation. Will you bounce back quickly, or struggle to get on your feet again,? That’s a good question. If you want a speedy recovery and an overall successful outcome, you need to do more than just bank on the skills of your surgeon and hope for the best. You need to get in shape with pre-hab before your surgery.
“Fifty percent of outcome success is due to the surgeon, and the other 50 percent is due to the patient’s commitment to recovery – starting with pre-hab,” says Vonda Wright, MD, assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Sports Medicine.
Rehabilitation is an exercise and therapy program performed for up to three months after surgery, and most joint-replacement patients know to expect it. Pre-habilitation – “pre-hab” for short – is an exercise therapy program started at least six weeks (and preferably longer) before surgery. It’s a new concept to many.
“Pre-hab makes a huge difference in our patients’ outcomes,” says orthopaedic surgeon Hal Crane, MD, founding medical director of the Rose Institute for Joint Replacement at the Rose Medical Center in Denver. “They get vertical sooner and recover faster.”
Effectiveness of Pre-hab
Just how effective is pre-hab? A study at New England Baptist Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, all in Boston, found that knee- and hip-replacement surgery patients who had participated in water- and land-based strength training, and aerobic and flexibility exercises for just six weeks prior to their surgeries reduced their odds of needing inpatient rehabilitation by 73 percent.
of the health information Web site eMedTV.com, which features more than 30 articles on joint-replacement surgeries. That means you – and only you – make the ultimate decision as to whether you will have one, he says. It also means you have the luxury of time to make the decision and to plan, once you do.
People reach the decision at different times and for different reasons. For some, joint pain becomes unbearable and is no longer relieved by exercise, medication or other conservative methods. For others, stiffness or immobility affects their ability to do their job, care for their home and family or enjoy their favorite activities.
Waiting a month – or even a year or two – to pursue surgery probably won’t have lifelong effects (although many people who have waited much longer say they wish they had had it sooner). And waiting for even a short time can enable you to learn all you can about the procedure and then prepare for it – mentally, physically and financially.
Preparing for |
“Even in a fairly brief time period, the exercise paid off for the participants,” says lead study author Daniel Rooks, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Their level of function and pain stabilized prior to surgery, whereas those who did not exercise got worse. The benefits of exercise before surgery are very clear: The more you can do for yourself physically before surgery, the better off you will be.”
Back on Your Feet Faster
The rewards of pre-hab show in the first 24 hours after surgery. After knee-replacement surgery, for example, patients are expected to be walking (using crutches or a walker) to the bathroom or in the hallway the day after. They generally must be able to go up and down two to four steps and walk 50 to 100 feet before leaving the hospital (usually in three to five days). The improved strength that people gain from pre-hab can help them achieve some of those milestones in less time, says Dr. Crane.
Patients who are more fit prior to surgery may have shorter hospital stays and may be discharged to home for outpatient rehab, rather than to a rehab facility for inpatient therapy. They also have fewer outpatient rehab sessions, says physical therapist Steve Sylvester, PhD, assistant professor of exercise science at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Fla.
“Patients can more quickly do recommended exercises at home, with follow-up on an as-needed basis, whereas those who haven’t had pre-hab need more hands-on sessions,” he says.
How to Get Pre-hab
The best approach to pre-hab is having individual sessions with a physical therapist, but that can be costly. Despite the proven benefits of pre-hab, not all insurance pays for it.
“Insurance can be one of the most difficult obstacles for pre-hab patients,” says Sylvester. “Physical therapy coverage often is limited to six weeks total – including pre-hab and rehab – or pre-hab may not be covered.”
If your insurance doesn’t cover pre-hab, talk to your doctor. Some hospitals offer pre-hab as part of a free pre-surgery education course. Or you might be able to schedule just one or two appointments with a physical therapist who can review – and possibly adapt – a regimen like this one for you to do on your own.
Download sample pre-hab exercises
REad Part 3 of the Joint Surgery Series: Your Post-Surgery Homecoming
