EXERCISE POST TKR

Very often, we have been told that we should not do any exercises that involves high impact activities such as jogging, running, aerobics, football, basketball etc. after TKR.  This is to avoid early failure of the knee replacements which may lead to a revision.

When I started to do my high intensive exercises which involves jumping jack as cardio, I was worried about my implants.  But I wanted to do it because its really effective for cardio plus it helped me to lose some pounds before.  So I tried and initially, it felt a little unnatural but after a while, I got the hang of it.  However, the whole time I was doing it, I was worried about my implants.  When I shared about this experience in my blog, some of my readers raised their concerns about me doing the jumping jack because they were advised by their OS not to do such activities in order to prevent loosening of the implants.  This confirmed my fears and so I stopped doing it. 

On the other hand, some of my forum members have said that they could not care less about the implication.  The reason they gave is that after being unable to do the things they loved for so long, TKR has enabled them to resume their love for sports and if they ended up needing a revision, so be it.  Now that's a whole different attitude which is really brave and I must admit that I tend to be more cowardly in this area.

So is high impact activities safe for implants or not?  There is an article in Arthritis Today titled Knee Replacements Not Harmed by Most Sports.  It said that a new study suggests that high-impact activities don't contribute to the early failure of knee implants.  This study suggests that those long-held assumptions could be wrong.  The study compared two groups of people with knee implants over a period of 7.5 years.  The sport group that ignored doctors' advice to avoid high-impact activities did not show any significant differences in wear or tear mechanical failure compared to the control group who followed doctors' advice.  Its even more surprising that the control group had a higher rate of loosening, wear, fracture and overall mechanical implant failure than the sport group. 

So why aren't high impact sports affecting the implant after 7.5 years?  The researches felt that it could be due in part to better-made prosthesis that are thicker and stronger than ones produced years ago.  They also think that patients practising these kinds of sports were probably doing it before the prosthetics so they have experience and are probably more able to protect the prosthesis by being more careful and paying attention to their knees.  However, there are concerns that the length of the study is only medium term and what is required is to show a longer term of 15 to 20 years. But the researchers said that intermediate follow-up lends credence to the idea that more activity is ok for implants.  They also said that its worthwhile reporting even though it doesn't conclusively prove they are safe.  So patients have to decide whether its worth the minimal risk in order for them to lead an active lifestyle.

Another inspiration is Dick Beardsley who is a recovering addict, motivational speaker and marathon runner.  He had battled back surgery and 2 TKRs due to injury and is still running.  You can check out his blog to read about his experience with TKR and running. 

So where does all this information lead us to? I think the answer really depends on the individual.  Fortunately for me, I am not into high impact activities.  I enjoy walking, cycling, stretching and strength training.  I have also recently added dancing as an exercise through a home video.  I can conclusively say that if I accidentally ran after a thief who snatched my bag or if I suddenly decided to jog lightly down the hill during my walks, I would not worry about my implants anymore!