Data Collection and Analysis Using Wearable Sensors for Monitoring Knee Range of Motion after Total Knee Arthroplasty

Abstract

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is the most common treatment for degenerative osteoarthritis of that articulation. However, either in rehabilitation clinics or in hospital wards, the knee range of motion (ROM) can currently only be assessed using a goniometer. In order to provide continuous and objective measurements of knee ROM, we propose the use of wearable inertial sensors to record the knee ROM during the recovery progress. Digitalized and objective data can assist the surgeons to control the recovery status and flexibly adjust rehabilitation programs during the early acute inpatient stage. The more knee flexion ROM regained during the early inpatient period, the better the long-term knee recovery will be and the sooner early discharge can be achieved. The results of this work show that the proposed wearable sensor approach can provide an alternative for continuous monitoring and objective assessment of knee ROM recovery progress for TKA patients compared to the traditional goniometer measurements.

Kinect and wearable inertial sensors for motor rehabilitation programs at home: state of the art and an experimental comparison

“…The use of IMUs attached to a target body segment and the adoption of relevant sensor fusion algorithms is nowadays commonly employed to analyze human motion within a large spectrum of motor tasks and exercises, from up-right posture to complex sports activities [109,111,112]. IMU use for clinical motion analysis has been extensively evaluated regarding accuracy and reliability, but evaluation studies are mostly confined to laboratories [64,93,96]. Considering at-home uses, wearable IMUs have an additional requirement when compared to the Kinect, since the user has to wear the sensors.…”

“…Research and clinical studies have validated the use of wearable IMUs also in various conditions and applications [80,92]. Notable examples include balance and postural evaluation [93,94], fall monitoring and prediction [95], gait analysis [96] and rehabilitation [64]. Laboratory evaluations and comparisons with high-precision MBS systems have shown high accuracy and reliability of wearable motion sensors.…”

“…Most of the previous validation studies used commercial solutions to obtain the orientation of the wearable sensors, which are used to estimate the orientation of the body segment they are attached to. Their outputs are then combined to form a partial or complete body pose estimation, based on the number of sensors in use [9,[59][60][61][62][63][64]. While there are several proposals for algorithms for the estimation of orientation from inertial sensors' data, the present work analyzes the most used ones, to provide a comparative analysis targeting robust and well-established solutions.…”

Sensor Positioning Influences the Accuracy of Knee Rom Data of an E-Rehabilitation System: A Preliminary Study with Healthy Subjects

“…With the use of new technologies, it is possible to monitor knee ROM outside the clinical setting. In the past, different alternatives have been recommended to assess ROM with the use of smartphones [26][27][28] and sensors like gyroscopes, accelerometers, and magnetometers [29]. Some of the systems use two or three sensor units located above and below the indexed joint and sometimes in the trunk [30][31][32][33].…”

Can stretch sensors measure knee range of motion in healthy adults?

“…Stretch or flexible sensors are one of the methods that have been used to measure joint ROM [3,6,8,15,17,19,24]. Stretch sensors can deform without breaking and change shape or size in a consistent manner dependent on the forces applied to them.…”