95% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Med.
Sec. Family Medicine and Primary Care
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1457407
This article is part of the Research Topic Prehabilitation Interventions in Common Diseases View all 3 articles
Prehabilitation is effective in relieving pain after knee arthroplasty, but has little effect on length of stay and knee function: a meta-analysis of rando mized controlled trials
Provisionally accepted- Kaifeng People's Hospital, Henan, China
The efficacy of preoperative rehabilitation (prehabilitation) for patients undergoing knee arthroplasty remains controversial. Prehabilitation is defined as the implementation of functional exercises, health education, and preemptive medication prior to surgery to improve postoperative outcomes, typically comp ared to conventional care protocols. Existing studies have reported inconsistent results regarding its benefits. This meta-analysis aims to evaluate the impact o f prehabilitation on hospital length of stay, postoperative pain, and knee functio n in patients undergoing knee arthroplasty. Methods:PubMed,Cochrane,Embase and Web of science were searched from the ir establishment to January 16, 2024.An additional 19 articles were obtained by reading the relevant literature or by a reference search. All clinical randomize d controlled trials (RCTs) related to prehabilitation of total knee arthroplasty w ere included.All trials were analyzed by two independent reviewers , and the r esulting data were analyzed using a random effects model and processed using Review Manager5.4 statistical software. TheMain Outcome measures are as fol lows:Visual analogue scale(VAS),Knee flexion and extension,Length of stay(L OS). Results:A total of 18 articles, encompassing 21 RCTs with 2,150 participants (1,167 in the prehabilitation group and 983 in the control group), were include d. The analysis revealed that prehabilitation significantly reduced postoperative pain at 1, 3, and 6 months, as evidenced by lower VAS scores. Improvements in knee function were noted in terms of knee extension at 1 month and knee flexion at 3 months postoperatively. However, no significant difference was ob served in the length of hospital stay. Conclusions: Prehabilitation prior to knee arthroplasty effectively alleviates post operative pain and partially enhances knee function in the early postoperative p eriod but does not significantly affect the length of hospital stay.
Keywords: Prehabilitation, knee arthroplasty, Length of Stay, knee flexion and extens ion, VAS score
Received: 30 Jun 2024; Accepted: 24 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Yang, Zhu and Lu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Nannan Yang, Kaifeng People's Hospital, Henan, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.