After Hip Replacement, Therapy At Home May Be Enough

As reported by HealthDay News, research findings suggest that post-operative physical therapy-based recovery does not need to be supervised by a professional therapist in an outpatient clinic in order to be effective. Researchers have found that home exercise programs may work equally as well.

“Our research found that the physical therapy does not necessarily need to be supervised by a physical therapist [for hip replacement patients],” said the author of the study, Dr. Matthew Austin of Rothman Orthopaedic Specialty Hospital in Pennsylvania. “The expense and time required of outpatient physical therapy, both for the patient and the patient’s caretakers, may not be the most efficient use of resources.”

“Certainly, this study has demonstrated that patients do just as well with the less expensive patient-directed exercise program as they do with the formal [outpatient physical therapy],” said Dr. Wayne Johnson, an orthopedic surgeon in Oklahoma. “Patients may also find it more convenient to perform their exercise program at home to minimize the additional time and transportation cost, in addition to the health-care cost savings.”

You can read more about the preliminary study findings at HealthDay News.

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