Physical Therapists' Perceptions of Continuous Passive Motion in Total Knee Arthroplasty

Purpose: To determine whether physical therapists find the effectiveness of continuous passive motion consistent with clinical research on patients with TKA in an acute care facility.Subjects: From the 300 randomly surveyed Broward County physical therapists, 48 were eligible for this study. Physical therapists were excluded if in the last 2 years they did not work in an acute care setting or had not treated a patient with a TKA who received CPM.Methodology: Data was collected for this descriptive study from a self generated survey which used force choice questions, multiple-choice options, open ended questions and the Likert scale. Frequency distributions were calculated for all demographic variables and responses on survey.Results: All physical therapists reported CPM was used to some extent during total knee arthroplasty rehabilitation. Perceptions concerning reduced rehabilitation costs and faster wound healing were not supported. Claims such as reduced amount of rehabilitation time and a patient reaching an earlier ROM of motion were supported by respondents. Responses to protocol concerns demonstrated a variety of initial CPM degree settings and time frame in which CPM was initially applied post-op.Conclusion and Discussion: Although there were many inconsistencies concerning clinical claims concerning CPM, most PTs were still strong advocates of CPM especially when used in conjunction with physical therapy.