3/18/10 Doctors have long recommended that knee replacement patients avoid sports like football, soccer, aerobics, jogging, baseball and basketball because it was thought that high-impact activities might contribute to the early failure of artificial joints, leading to the need for a second surgery.
But a new study suggests that those long-held assumptions could be wrong.
The study compared two groups of people with knee implants – those who ignored advice to take it easy on their new joints (called the sport group) and model patients who followed doctors' orders to avoid high-impact activities (the control group).
Researchers found that after more than seven years there were no significant differences in wear or mechanical failure between the two groups.
The research was presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in New Orleans, La.
“We were a little bit surprised because we were not thinking that there would be absolutely no difference,” says lead author Sebastian Parratte, MD, PhD, an orthopaedic surgeon from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and the Aix-Marseille University, Center for Arthritis Surgery, Hospital Sainte-Marguerite in Marseille, France.
“Before, everybody was thinking if you go running or something like that it will kill the prosthetic and don’t do that. It’s forbidden,” Dr. Parratte says
Perhaps even more surprising is that researchers found that those who took part in the non-recommended sports actually showed higher knee and function scores than the control group.
The control group had a higher rate of loosening, wear, fracture and overall mechanical implant failure than the sport group at 11 percent compared to 8.5 percent in the sport group.
Adjusting for a variety of lifestyle factors, doctors say the sport group had a 10 percent increased risk of mechanical failure, but they don’t consider that to be statistically significant.
“The big news is that everybody before was thinking that doing high-activity sports would be terrible for the prosthetic of the patient and what we discovered was it was not terrible and indeed the patients that did high-level activity sports were doing better than others,” Dr. Parratte says.
Teri
I see different coments on knee conditions and
knee replacements. I am physical therapist and treat hip, knee shoulder replacements. Rule of thumb after knee surgery is gradual progression
in recovery and patient has to do regular exercise to keep muscle strong. Few things depends upon type of prosthesis you dr uses. I love to help you by giving answer your questions
Anyone wants to discuss knee replacements with other patients can find support on www.bonesmart.org/forum
I had a total knee replacement on June 22, 2010. Of course my doctor told me that running on the artificial knee would be out of the question. But I had made up my mind from the beginning that running was too importnat to me to stop. My thinking was this...the lastest articial knees will potentially last 30 years. So suppose I run and it only lasts 20? I will have spent 20 years doing what I love. I didn't give a darn what my doctor said, I was determined to run again. I am now four months post-op and have resumed running with no problems whatsoever. If you want to run, if it is importmant to you, then screw the doctors and run.
Thank you for providing transparency in your reports.
I don't have RA, but at 46 my OEM knees squeek something fierce. In a quiet room everyone could hear them if I knelt over to pick up something on the flooor. My wife has sjogren's and is likely to develop RA so this article is very encouraging.
However, this may have to do with Wolff's law, which states that the more you stress a bone, the more it still remodel and become stronger. Therefore, if the patient continues to perform these vigorous activities, the bone surrounding the implant will remodel and strengthen better, thus making the implant more stable, and stabilizing the implant to do what it should be doing.
Those that are less active or even sedentary, the bone around the implant will not strengthen as much, thus allowing some instability in the implant, not firmly stabilizing it to do what it should be doing.
Mr. Smith, according to the study, you may continue running, but you will need to work up to it slowly (being a runner myself and someone studying orthopedics). Your best bet is to consult your orthopedist or doctor first and speak to your doctor if you do feel pain or something feels wrong.
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