Lidiak, CR, Olson, SL, Roddey, TS; Texas Woman’s University, Houston, TX. glidiak@swbell.net.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this preliminary study was to develop a battery of clinically useful physical performance measures to evaluate function after Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA). BACKGROUND: Physicians typically measure patients’ knee flexibility and pain after TKA but do not conduct functional assessments. Functional deficits, therefore, frequently are not recognized and patients are not referred to physical therapy for treatment. SUBJECTS: Twenty-one community dwelling volunteers participated. The TKA group consisted of 3 males and 7 females, with a mean age of 69.3 ± 7.2 years, who had unilateral TKA surgery at least 1 year previously. The Non-TKA group consisted of 5 males and 6 females, with a mean age of 72.1 ± 7.9 years, who had no lower extremity dysfunction. METHODS: Each subject in both groups performed 17 tests in random order. One therapist recorded all measures. The tests were: timed gait, timed floor rise, timed up-&-go, forward lunge, sit-to-stand (3 heights and 3 leg positions), step up & over (4", 8" and 12" heights), single-leg press, 360° turn, grapevine, figure-8 walk, standing on foam (eyes open and closed), stepping over 16" rail, kneeling (including time to reach the position), squat test, step touch, hip rotation, and leg cross. ANALYSIS: Correlations were computed to assess possible relationships of age and gender with test scores. Independent t tests were used to compare the test scores of subjects with TKA and those without knee pathology (alpha=0.05). Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (ROC) analyses were conducted for those variables for which there were significant group differences. RESULTS: Age and gender were not significantly correlated with test scores. Scores on seven physical performance tests were significantly lower for the subjects who had TKA as compared to the subjects with no knee pathology. Those tests were: 8-foot walk (p=0.013), 12" step-up-&-over (p=0.006), time-to-kneel (p=0.026), timed floor rise (p=0.011), squat test (p=0.012), standing on foam eyes open (p=0.027), and sit-to-stand from below knee height with the foot ipsilateral to the TKA placed in back of the contralateral foot (p<0.003). The ROC values for these tests ranged from 0.759-0.960. CONCLUSION: These seven tests are appropriate for use in future studies to assess functional ability after TKA. FUNDING SOURCE: Texas Woman’s University.

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