Long-Term Pain After Knee Replacement Surgery Can Be Debilitating: Here’s An Inexpensive Way Out

Knee replacement brings relief for countless osteoarthritis patients. But some are left with ongoing pain. A new care pathway offers a solution.

Written By: Jahnavi Sarma | Updated : February 1, 2022 11:31 AM IST

Knee replacement surgery has become all too common nowadays. This procedure offers patients with a chance to live a normal and fulfilling life. It improves mobility and patients feel a new sense of independence and a pain-free life. However, one of the side-effects of this procedure is often ongoing pain for some patients. In fact, as many as one in five patients suffer from debilitating pain after this surgery and they have to undergo intense physiotherapy and spend a lot to get relief from this pain. But the good news is that now a new research by scientists from University of Bristol and North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) have developed an inexpensive method by which one can overcome this. This is published in The Lancet Rheumatology.

Benefits of the STAR care pathway

Knee replacement surgeries are usually the opted for procedure for patient of osteoarthritis, who are in constant pain and whose mobility is affected due to knee arthritis. But, unfortunately, many patient across the word suffer from moderate to severe pain three months or even for a longer duration after they undergo the procedure. This has an adverse effect on their day-to day lives. According to the researchers, the STAR care pathway (Support and Treatment After joint Replacement) significantly brings down the severity of pain and reduces hospital admissions for the same. They came to this conclusion after they designed and tested a new treatment in a randomised controlled trial in eight hospitals in the United Kingdom. According to them, patients who received the STAR care pathway had the following advantages -

Significantly Less Pain.
Adverse Impact On Daily Life Six And 12 Months After Treatment Also Goes Down.
It Cuts Down Hospital Re-Admissions By Half.
It Also Reduces The Length Of Stay In Hospital, If A Patient Has To Be Readmitted Three Months After Surgery.
A Patient Has To Take Less Unpaid Leaves.

What the STAR care pathway is all about

The care pathway developed by the research team works in an innovative way to provide relief to patients.

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Patients have to attend an hour-long clinic three months post-surgery. This clinic is run by trained health care professionals.
They have to fill in a detailed pain questionnaires.
They have to undergo a blood test to detect any infection. X-rays are also taken. Further course of treatment is based on the results.
Tailored physiotherapy appointments are offered to patients according to their needs.
Moreover, patients receive around six telephonic calls over the next year. This is done to see how they are holding up after their surgery.

This strategy had a positive impact on people and they were better able to handle their pain. Researchers who developed this pathway are hopeful that it will benefit people with pain at three months after knee replacement. But they say that there is a need research to identify patients at high risk of developing pain after knee replacement surgery.

(With inputs from Agencies)