Unrestricted Rehabilitation Following Primary Total Hip Arthroplasty: Implications for Patient Satisfaction and Functional Performance

The current standard of care following total hip replacement is to restrict patient activity and range-of-motion with the goal of avoiding dislocation of the operative hip. These restrictions are commonly referred to as "hip precautions". Several recent studies have demonstrated these precautions may be safely abandoned with no increased risk of dislocation when the surgery is carried through an anterior/lateral approach. Previous work has failed to address the issue of patient satisfaction and functional performance when patients are managed with an unrestricted rehabilitation protocol post-operatively. We propose a prospective, randomized clinical trial to determine whether an unrestricted postoperative rehabilitation protocol has an impact on patient satisfaction and functional performance following primary total hip arthroplasty.