NCT03371901

Blood Flow Restriction Training in Patients With Weight Bearing Restrictions After Knee Surgery

Physical Therapy With Blood Flow Restriction Training to Enhance Recovery in Patients With Early Weight Bearing Restrictions After Knee Surgery: A Feasibility Study

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 42 (actual)
• Sponsor: Health Centre Nørrebro, City of Copenhagen · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 70 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

After a cartilage or meniscus repair in the knee joint, the patients experience a pronounced and persistent decrease of knee-extension strength in the operated leg, which negatively affect patients' functional performance and quality of life. A possible novel exercise modality to increase muscle strength early is a moderate blood flow restriction with low-load strength training (BFR-LLST) exercise. BFR-LLST involves application of a wrapping device to restrict the blood flow to the muscle(s) during exercise. BFR- LLST requires much less load than traditional strength training and has shown to produce positive training adaptations such as muscle hypertrophy and strength in the lower extremity in healthy subjects and patients with a knee surgery. To our knowledge, early rehabilitation with BFR-LLST has never been investigated in a population with weight bearing restrictions, such as patients recovering from cartilage or meniscus repair in the knee joint. Fear of symptom exacerbation and adverse events have precluded BFR-LLST early after knee surgery. The purpose of this study is to examine the feasibility of 9 weeks of supervised rehabilitation with BFR-LLST early after cartilage or meniscus repair in the knee joint.

Conditions

• Cartilage, Articular
• Tibial Meniscus Injuries

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Physical therapy with BFR-LLST	The criteria-based rehabilitation protocol for the patients with cartilage or meniscus repair may vary according to the surgical procedures. Patients will attend 5 individual treatments, and a 6-week supervised group-based rehabilitation program with BFR-LLST (Blood Flow Restriction - Low Load Strength Training) twice a week at the rehabilitation centre. Patient will be instructed to perform BFR-LLST 5 times a week in total (twice supervised, 3 times at home). During each BFR-LLST session, patients are encouraged to perform 4 sets of 30 repetitions, 15 repetitions, 15 repetitions, and 15 repetitions (or to fatigue in the final set), respectively. The exercise intervention will adhere to TIDieR (template for intervention description and replication).

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-12-12
• Primary completion: 2019-05-14
• Completion: 2019-05-14
• First posted: 2017-12-13
• Last updated: 2019-05-24

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Denmark