The Short- and Long-term Effects of Fall Prevention Program on the Number of Falls Among Elderly Following Total Knee Replacement: a Pragmatic Single-blinded Randomized Controlled Trial.

Falls constitute a serious and common threat to the health and well-being of older individuals, and this threat increases with aging. Falls in older individuals place a significant burden on the health care system as well as the caregivers (i.e., family). Importantly, however, many falls could be prevented.

Osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee is a common degenerative musculoskeletal condition among elderly that results in ambulatory dysfunction. This progressive degenerative disorder is usually associated with pain, muscle weakness, and poor balance, all of which are considered primary risk factors for falling among older adults. Total knee replacement (TKR) is the most replicable and effective orthopaedic procedure used to treat advanced-stage knee OA. The goal of TKR is to relieve pain, increase knee mobility, and improve functional ability and the overall quality of life. Despite the promising results of TKR surgery, it is associated with a high prevalence of falls. In this regard, falls rate have been reported to be between 6.2% and 42.6% in the first 12 months following TKR. Persistence of muscle weakness and poor balance may contribute to the high fall rate following TKR. This highlights the importance of targeting muscle strength and balance during rehabilitation, considering the short-term implications that could reflect on long-term recovery.

A substantial amount of evidence supports the use of exercise-based interventions (i.e., muscle strengthening and balance training) to prevent falls and fall-related injuries. A Cochrane systematic review by on 108 RCTs (n=23,407) provided high-certainty evidence that exercises, particularly balance and functional based-exercises, are more effective in reducing the falls rate compared to the control interventions. Moreover, exercise-based interventions have been shown to be superior to other interventions for mitigating age-related decline and reducing falls and falls-related injuries with the least harm and greatest cost-effectiveness.

Conventional physiotherapy following TKR involves, primarily, strengthening and knee range of motion exercises and gait re-education. However, there is a lack of balance training/exercises in the rehabilitation program. Given the high prevalence of falls following TKR, integrating a comprehensive fall prevention program into conventional physiotherapy may be of importance. Thus, the aim of the proposed research is to investigate the short and long-term effects of integrating a comprehensive fall prevention programme into conventional physiotherapy on the number of falls, balance, and functional ability among elderly following TKR.