After Partial Knee Replacement, Patients Can Kneel, But They Need to Be Taught to Do So: A Single-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial

Background and Purpose. Kneeling is an important functional activity fre-quently not performed after knee replacement, thus affecting a patient’s ability to carry out basic daily tasks. Despite no clinical reason preventing kneeling, many patients fail to resume this activity. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a single physical therapy intervention would improve patient-reported kneeling ability following partial knee replacement (PKR). Subjects. Sixty adults with medial compartment osteoarthritis, suitable for a PKR, participated. Methods. This was a single-blind, prospective randomized controlled trial. Six weeks after PKR, participants randomly received either kneeling advice and educa-tion or routine care where no specific kneeling advice was given. Reassessment was at 1 year postoperatively. The primary outcome measure was patient-reported kneel-ing ability, as assessed by question 7 of the Oxford Knee Score. Other factors associated with kneeling ability were recorded. These factors were scar position, numbness, range of flexion, involvement of other joints, and pain. Statistical analysi