No abstract

Background Concerns about the cost and convenience of postsurgical physical therapy (PT) have sparked interest in unsupervised, home-based rehabilitation. However, the effectiveness of unsupervised home exercise after primary TKA has not been previously evaluated. Questions/purposes (1) Can unsupervised home exercise after surgery provide noninferior recovery of passive knee flexion compared with formal outpatient PT?(2) Does a web-based platform for home-based exercise provide an advantage compared with a printed PT manual?Methods We conducted a randomized, noninferiority trial involving 290 patients (20% of the 1464 eligible patients who could be contacted) who underwent primary TKA from March 2016 to April 2018. We included patients > 18 years old who were undergoing primary, unilateral TKA and provided written consent. We excluded patients with preoperative knee flexion < 90°, patients considering surgical intervention in a hip or the contralateral knee, patients discharged to an extended care facility, and revision or conversion TKA. We randomized patients to one of three groups: outpatient PT, unsupervised home exercise using a